The Past Has a Way of Writing the Future
by leogalsis
Summary: Glinda has been keeping the truth a secret for almost twenty years but her daughter starts to question what really happened. Telling her the truth could destroy Glinda but perhaps save her life.
1. Chapter 1: Life Without Elphaba

a/n this is my first fanfic so go easy on me. reviews are always appreciated so please do. anyways that's all on with the story.

disclaimer: I only own the characters I made up everything else is owned by someone else.

Summary: Glinda has been keeping the truth a secret for almost twenty years but her daughter starts to question what really happened. Telling her the truth could destroy Glinda but perhaps save her life.

Chapter 1: Life without Elphaba 

"Pete!!!!!!!!!" Pete heard the scream. He knew that scream so well. He always was amazed that no matter where he was, he could always hear that scream anywhere in the castle. He slowly got up and abandoned his activity. He left the room and walked in the direction of the cry. He knew this wasn't an emergency. He spent almost twenty years living with this person; he knew what her emergency voice was and what her overly dramatic emergency voice was. This time like many others before was her dramatic scream.

"Yes Glinda?" He asked her when he walked into the room that Glinda was in. Glinda looked away from her servant and over at her very dear friend. He knew all of her secrets. The secrets that she could tell no one or else she would lose everything that she had worked for, everything that she had now. He was the only one that knew the full story of her life and that was how she intended to keep it. Yes, he was one of her closest friends. She sometimes laughed at that fact. If someone told her before she attended Shiz that she would one day have a very close friend that was a monkey with wings she would have died of laughter.

Yes, that would be before she met Elphaba and Fiyero and changed for good. She didn't care about anyone but herself back then. Elphie had opened her eyes to the world around her. Glinda remembered the day she met Pete. It was the day that Elphie gave up and let the little girl throw water on her, which resulted to her death. Pete was the only monkey that could speak and communicate perfectly. He was the one that helped her keep going, telling her that everyone in Oz needed her. It was at that moment when he comforted her that Glinda knew she had to step up and fix Oz. It took a few years but she accomplished her dream. She sent Madame Morrible to jail and the Wizard on his way. After the celebration of the 'Wicked Witch of the West's' death she made sure that all animals got the same education as everyone else. She kept order in all of Oz even though she knew that she was only in this position because of what happened. She was the new 'Wizard of Oz' except she wasn't a fake like the Wiz. Elphaba would be proud. Proud that Glinda stopped being so self-center, proud that animals were getting right, and proud that she had mastered almost half of the spell book that started the mess. She only wished that Elphaba were here to see it.

Glinda shook her head. She couldn't, wouldn't think about Elphaba. It was too hard to think about her without crying. _Just focus on the task at hand._ She thought to herself. It took her a second to remember why she shouted for Pete, which didn't bother him. He knew that sometimes Glinda's thoughts could be her worst enemy. "Fayba's missing again. How does this child do it? Never mind just find her please. She has to leave to Shiz soon and she is no where to be found," Glinda said rolling her eyes. She should have guessed that Fayba would be missing. Fayba made sure that everyone in this castle know that she didn't want to go to Shiz by complaining since Glinda told her she was going. It didn't matter though. She promised that she would go to Shiz when she reached the age of sixteen like every normal witch. Glinda just couldn't understand how Fayba always managed to leave the castle without a trace.

"I'll find her before it's time to leave don't worry," Pete said leaving. He knew exactly where Fayba was. She was always there when she wanted to rebel or to just be alone. Glinda didn't know where this place was though as to Fayba's request. Well Glinda may know of the place but didn't know that this was Fayba's favourite place. Pete left the castle and started flying to find Fayba.


	2. Chapter 2: Fayba

Chapter 2: Fayba

She was lying on the grass with her eyes closed, enjoying her surroundings. She felt the wind blow across her body as she inhaled and exhaled. She could hear her unicorn beside her, eating the grass. Starlight was always hungry. It was always astonishing how much Starlight could eat, she never seemed full.

Then she heard it, the sound she always dreads when she was here. It was the sound of Pete flying. He was coming to tell her that her mother was looking for her and that she should go back to the castle right away. She opened her eyes; sat up, and looked around her because this may be the last time she is up here for a very long time. She looked at the open field with trees surrounding it. She love being on this hill. This was the most beautiful hill in Oz in her opinion.

She looked straight ahead at the other hills. It was early in the morning. A couple hours after the sun rose. It was a beautiful bright summer day. Of course, everyday in Oz was beautiful even if it wasn't sunny because there was always a witch trying to impress her mother: 'The Good Witch of the North.' She hated that title because once she finished her schooling she would be deemed 'The Good Witch of the South.' It made her fake vomit just thinking about it. Yes, she loved her mother and loved what she had done to repair Oz after the Wizard decided to leave and never come back, but she didn't want the title just because she was the daughter. She wanted the title after she did something great, not before.

"There you are," Pete said, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Your mother is looking for you Fayba."

Fayba sighed. "I'm sure going to miss this place the most. Everything seems so peaceful here. Nothing is disturbed by magic or built on. Doesn't it look beautiful?"

"Yes it does. It always looks beautiful," Pete said. He felt a bit sorry for Fayba. She truly did not want to go to Shiz but just like her mother, Pete thought that it was the best place for her to learn magic.

"What do you think Starlight; do you think this is a beautiful place?" Fayba asked.

Starlight lifted her head up and nodded for she had a bit of trouble speaking early in the morning and also when her mouth was full which was the situation she was in now.

Fayba sighed again. "I guess we should go now before mom has a panic attack," Fayba said standing up and climbing on Starlight's back. Starlight started stretching her huge, beautiful, white wings waiting for Fayba to give the signal to take off.

"I think it's a little late for that," Pete said. Fayba smiled at the thought for she loved giving her mother a panic attack because it was so easy to do. "You better wipe that smile off your face before we get there," Pete said starting to fly. Fayba gently tapped Starlight, giving her the signal to follow.

"Ya, ya," was all Fayba said to that subject. She turned her head to look at the beautiful view for the last time.

---

"No the suitcases with Fayba's books go underneath her suitcases with the clothes. You don't want her clothes getting wrinkly do you?" Glinda said to one of her servants that was loading Fayba's things into the carriage. He stared at her, giving her the 'are you crazy look.'

"You do know that all the clothes are in suitcases that if one suitcase was on top of another, it would make no difference. Besides doesn't Fayba know a spell to get the wrinkles out?"

"Yes she does but that's beside the point."

"And what was the point?"

Glinda pondered what the point was. "The point is that I'm the Good Witch of the North so I know best. Ha take that!" Glinda said triumphantly.

The servant rolled his eyes. "How many times have I heard you say that?"

"Too many because you always ask so many questions," They both glared at each other, neither of them talking for a second, waiting for the other to cave first. Then simultaneously, burst out laughing.

"The suitcases with the books on the bottom it is," He said once they got a hold of themselves.

"Thank you," Glinda said. She then went to the front of the carriage, making sure everything was set for Fayba to leave once Pete brings her back. Before she could say anything to the driver, Nancy, one of her ladies in waiting came running up to her.

"Glinda! Pete found her, she's here," Nancy said after she caught her breath.

"Where?" Glinda said turning to Nancy.

"In her room, talking to Ruby and Ander."

Glinda didn't say another word to Nancy. She just walked back into the castle. She was going to have a little chat with that girl. She disappears early in the morning and when she comes back, she acts as if everything is fine, again. She also couldn't believe that Ruby and Ander managed to enter the castle without her seeing them. Ruby and Ander were Fayba's two best friends since childhood. Ruby and Fayba became friends on the first day of pre-school and became friends with Ander a month later when he transferred into the school. They weren't going to Shiz with Fayba. They were staying at home, joining the workforce, like most of their classmates. In fact, Fayba was the only one in her class going to Shiz. Glinda was nice enough to give Ruby and Ander a job in Emerald city, and well, there wasn't much work as play there. It was one of the negotiations that Glinda had to make with Fayba so that she would agree to go to Shiz. Fayba basically did everything besides gluing her hands to the castle to try and convince Glinda that making her go to Shiz was a bad idea. Glinda didn't give in though, she couldn't. Her whole family for generations went to Shiz and if Fayba didn't go, not only would it be considered a 'scandal' to her family but to everyone in Oz. Fayba was going to go to Shiz even if Glinda would have to carry her on her back just to get her there. She! Was! Going!

Glinda opened her daughter's bedroom door and stepped inside. All that was left of her room was the furniture and a few suitcases that hadn't made it to the carriage yet. Glinda looked directly at her daughter. Fayba had stopped talking to Ruby and Ander when Glinda stepped in. In fact, the whole room was silent. Even Pete, who was standing beside Ander didn't say anything nor did Nancy, who followed behind Glinda when she took off towards Fayba's room. Everyone waited for Glinda to say something.

"Well it's nice of you to finally come back Fayba. Say goodbye to Ander and Ruby because you are leaving now," Glinda turned and walked out of the room and Fayba chased after her.

"I'm not going," Fayba called. Glinda turned around, seeing Fayba leaning on the wall with her arms crossed.

Glinda sighed; Fayba was so stubborn, just like her father. Glinda walked back up the stairs that she almost made down and she stopped two feet in front of Fayba. "I don't want to fight about this anymore. I already promised you that you could bring all your books and drawing tools. I let you stay out late, past your curfew, and I made sure Ruby and Ander got good jobs in Emerald city. Please just get in the carriage," Glinda begged. Fayba was a bit taken back, she expected a fight, not a plead.

"Fine," Fayba mumbled, looking at her feet. Glinda smiled and turned to walk back down the stairs. "Bye guys I'll miss you," Fayba said grabbing both Ruby and Ander into a group hug.

"You too," Ruby said as Ander nodded. Fayba turned towards the stairs only to see Glinda stop in the middle of the staircase, gripping her stomach.

"Mom!" Fayba yelled running to her. "Are you alright?" Fayba asked, holding onto her to make sure she wouldn't fall. Nancy, Pete, Ruby, Ander, and a few other servants were all crowding around her too.

Glinda nodded, straighten up and she let go of her stomach. "I'm fine. Just a little stomach ache that's all," she said as she started walking down the stairs again.

"Yesterday it was just a little head ache and the day before that it was just a little back ache, and the day before that it was just a little bit of watery eyes, are you sure you're fine?" Fayba asked, following her mother outside, towards the carriage.

"I'm perfectly fine don't worry," Glinda reassured her.

"Are you sure, maybe I should stay here and not go to Shiz just in case," Fayba said.

Glinda smiled. "Nothing is going to stop you from going to that school. Now get in the carriage," She said pointing to it. Fayba hesitated. "I'm fine, really." Fayba nodded and gave her a tight hug. Glinda hugged back. "I love you darling," She whispered.

"Love ya too," Fayba said as they separated. She got into the carriage and a servant closed the door. The carriage started to move and Glinda waved until she couldn't see the carriage anymore. Ruby and Ander said goodbye and left, heading back to their homes. The servants also started to leave, going back inside the castle to finish their duties that had been on hold that morning, soon only Glinda and Pete were left outside.

"She's still worried about you," Pete said looking up at Glinda.

"I know," Glinda said still staring at the closed gate, where the carriage containing her daughter once was.

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"It wouldn't make a difference. It's probably just a bug and if it isn't, there's nothing the doctor can do."

"You don't actually think that it is-"

"You know what they say, hope for the best, expect the worst." Glinda turned toward the castle and walked inside.

Pete looked at the gate, "Let's hope for Fayba's sake that it is just a bug. She can't handle losing another parent," He whispered. He then turned and followed Glinda inside.


	3. Chapter 3: Dear Old Shiz

disclaimer: again I do not own anything in this story except the characters I made up.

Chapter 3: Dear Old Shiz

Fayba walked slowly into the cafeteria of Shiz. Behind her were the servant that came with her and the driver, carrying her suitcases. The café was where everyone would meet their fellow classmates and be assigned dorm rooms. The room practically fell silent except a few whispers when Fayba stepped in. Fayba really hated this part; she was always the center of attention because she was Glinda, the Good Witch of the North's daughter. It was always an awkward silence until she introduced herself as Fayba. Once she said her name, everyone would come up to her, trying to be her friend, asking her if she needed something. She always had to bite her tongue and resist saying 'air to breathe would be nice'. That would be rude to say and she would get in trouble not to mention feeling guilty. She felt someone nudge her back; it was the driver, hinting that she should say something.

Fayba turned to her audience that were all staring at her. "Hi. I'm Fayba," and that was all she had to say because the next thing she knows, she is surrounded by twenty people all saying their names and saying nice to meet you. "It's nice to meet all of you too," Fayba said which led to everyone cheering. Fayba had to use all her will power to not roll her eyes; she really hated the extra treatment. She felt that she shouldn't get extra treatment, she wasn't great, she was just the daughter of someone great.

"Alright, alright, settle down. I am Madame Torrible, no relation to Morrible. I am the principal of Shiz," A very young, very skinny, very short, very brunette woman said. "Now what seems to be all the commotion?" she asked. Everyone parted, like the red sea as Madame Torrible walked closer. She stopped right in front of Fayba. "And you are…"

"Fayba." Madame Torrible's whole face lit up.

"Oh, it is a pleasure to finally meet you," she said, grabbing Fayba's hand and shaking it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," Fayba said even though she didn't even know the principal's name until three seconds before.

"I look forward in teaching you," Madame Torrible said then turned around before Fayba could reply. "Everyone quiet please, I'm going to announce who is rooming with whom," The room fell silent as she read out the names. When she said Fayba's name every girl in the room took a breath in. Fayba did too, secretly praying that she would be by herself. "Fayba and… Jasmine," Most of the room groaned, including Fayba. She walked toward Madame Torrible, and took the key reading 209. She waited for the girl named Jasmine to come forward, seeing no one come she turned to Madame Torrible. "She must have not arrived yet." Madame Torrible said.

Fayba nodded and walked towards her room as her driver and servant follow. Once they reached the room, Fayba opened the door and walked in as well as the servant and driver. "We'll go and get the rest of your things now," The servant said as he and the driver left.

"Thanks," Fayba replied. She walked over to her bed and started to unpack her books. She was walking to the bookshelf when she heard a knock at the door. She looked over at the open door, seeing a very tall, skinny, dark haired boy leaning on it.

"Hey," He said still leaning on the door.

"Hello," Fayba said cautiously.

"Oh sorry," he said walking into the room. "I'm Lance," he continued, sticking out his hand. Fayba looked at the hand for a second debating to trust him or not but decided not to be rude and shook it.

"I'm-"

"Fayba," He finished for her. "Ya I know," He said still holding onto her hand, Fayba had to basically rip her hand out from his grasp.

"Of course you know, everyone knows," Fayba muttered under her breath.

"So you wanna walk around and maybe talk?" He asked walking closer, making Fayba back into a wall.

"Oh, well, I have a lot of stuff to unpack so I'm gonna have to pass," Fayba said, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable since Lance had his body almost pressed up against hers.

"You sure?" he whispered in her ear.

"Ya I'm sure," she said slipping out of his grasp and walking over to her bed to unpack more books.

"Okay. I'm in room 315 if you happen to change your mind," he said smirking as if he knew something she didn't.

"I won't," Fayba called after him as he left the room.

A couple minutes later, her servant and driver came back with the rest of Fayba's things. She said goodbye to them and continued to unpack when she heard someone step into the room. She hoped it wasn't another guy trying to hit on her. It wasn't that she didn't like dating, it was just that most of the guys she dated were mostly jerks who wanted to date her because of what family she was born into, not because they wanted to get to know her. She decided that she was going to get to know a guy as a friend before she would date them. So far, that plan wasn't going so well. She wasn't attracted to any guy that was her friend. So here she was waiting for Prince Charming and praying that all the jerks that she seemed to attract go away and find some other girl to bother.

Fayba turned around to face whoever walked into the room. She was a bit shocked when she saw who was standing near the door. It was a very beautiful teenage girl, who had long black hair, dark brown eyes, and had huge breast but was very skinny. Fayba looked down at herself, seeing her long blonde hair, small breast and skinny figure. _Well at least I'm average height as appose to being very tall. That's about all I have going for me._ Fayba thought. She felt a bit intimated by the girl because this girl could be in the Oz magazine as a model and the painter wouldn't have to change anything in the picture to make her look gorgeous, she was that beautiful.

"Hi, I'm Jasmine," The girl said putting her stuff down on the other bed and walking over to Fayba.

"Fayba," she said as they shook hands.

"Fayba?" Jasmine said, looking at her strangely. Fayba knew she was going to make the connection, if only her mother didn't decide to give her such a weird name. 'I decided to make up a name for you so that you would be unique,' her mother would say when Fayba asked. Like she needed to be more unique. She was the freaken daughter of the Good Witch of the North. She needed less uniqueness. "Are you the daughter of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North?" she asked.

Fayba put on a fake smile. "That's me," she said trying desperately to not fling herself off a building because she could predict what Jasmine was going to say next.

"Ah that explains the booing from all the girls who saw me as I walked down the hall." Fayba laughed. The need for flinging herself off a building seemed to disappear because Jasmine didn't say 'oh my gosh! Let's be friends!'

"Well I'm always very popular," Fayba said, starting to unpack her things again. "I'm actually surprised that you are taking rooming with me so well. Usually the second I introduce myself they scream then try to be BFFs with me, which leads to me wanting to bang my head against the wall and them later on stalking me."

Jasmine laughed. "Well you're safe with me. I would rather stalk a guy then a girl." Fayba smiled, Jasmine reminded her of Ruby and Ander. They never talked about how popular Fayba was or tried to use her as other people tried to. "Well speaking of guys I saw the hottest most popular guy walking down the hall, talking to a girl. I'm surprised he got a date on the first day he's here but then again, that seems like him." Jasmine said sitting on her bed.

"Oh really, who?" Fayba said sitting on her own bed, taking a break of unpacking.

Jasmine walked over and sat beside Fayba. "His name is Lance," she said.

Fayba's eyes widened. "Lance. You said his name was Lance," Fayba asked, making sure she heard her right.

"Ya why?" Jasmine asked.

"Well he came into our dorm just a few minutes ago asking me if I wanted to walk around with him."

"Shut up! No way! Well I'm not surprised he's hot, you're hot it makes sense that he was trying to date you. He always goes after hot girls. Geeze can't you guys date ugly people, spread your hotness around instead of just keeping it to yourselves," Jasmine said, getting excited.

"You're not so ugly yourself." Fayba said smiling. "You seem to know a lot about him, did you two maybe date."

Jasmine looked down. "He came to my school last year, he instantly became popular and we dated once."

"Uh-huh once," Fayba said, not believing Jasmine.

Jasmine looked back up at Fayba. "I swear only once, it's what he does. He dates a girl for about a week then moves onto another one. The record had been for 20 days. Who know how Pearl was able to hang on so long."

"Wow he seems like a jerk," Fayba said, getting angrier by the second. How dare he date one girl the toss her like she is old news. Doesn't he have any respect towards women?

"Oh well don't get me wrong, being his girlfriend was the best week of my life. He treated me like a princess."

"Yes but then he dumped you."

"Ya but I was expecting it. He wants to be a legend like his brother was. Last year was just a practice year, preparing to come to Shiz."

"Who was his older brother?" Fayba said intrigued because she was sure that she heard about the older brother if he was a legend. She looked at Jasmine, really wanting to know the name.

Jasmine paused, making a dramatic affect then finally said, "Fiyero."

Reviews are always welcome!


	4. Chapter 4: Lance the Jerk

disclaimer: I only wish that I was the owner of Wicked because then I could get unlimited tickets to go see Wicked the musical over and over again. Unfortunately that is only a dream, in reality I only own the characters I made up. sigh.

Chapter 4: Lance the Jerk

Fayba looked at Jasmine as if she had two heads. She couldn't believe the word that just came out of her mouth. "Fiyero, as in the scarecrow that traveled with Dorothy to see the Wizard to get a brain, then mysteriously disappeared after the ceremony, never to be seen again? That Fiyero?" Fayba asked.

"The one and only," Jasmine said, oblivious to the state of shock that Fayba was in.

"How come I've never heard of him?" Fayba asked more to herself then to Jasmine.

Jasmine answered it anyways. "Apparently the story is that Fiyero's parents were so heartbroken when the Wicked Witch of the West turned Fiyero into a scarecrow and then having him disappeared, they decided to have another child. This time though they decided to have him home schooled and by home schooled I mean have a private tutors come to their castle and teach him. Last year though he wanted to go to a normal school and his parents let him. The rest is history."

Fayba nodded trying to take all the information in. She knew the evil Wicked Witch of the West story as well as any other child in Oz. She practically had it memorized but she had no idea though that Fiyero had a younger brother. She always wanted to know what happened to Fiyero. As Pete explained it, Fiyero was engaged to her mother but the Wicked Witch of the West was jealous of their love, turned Fiyero into a scarecrow, taking his brain so he wouldn't remember Glinda. Pete would then end the story as it being a good thing that the Wicked Witch of the West split up Fiyero and Glinda or else Fayba wouldn't have been born. Fayba would then worry that Glinda regretted not having the chance in marrying Fiyero but Pete would always reassure her that it was for the best and that Glinda didn't regret it. Pete always told her the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. Fayba was so intrigued when she was younger, wanting to know how a person could be so evil and how she ended up getting what she deserved. Pete was always there to tell and retell the story to Fayba whenever she asked.

She would never ask her parents. Her father knew too little of the full story to have an opinion and to tell the story with detail. She asked her mother once; she asked her what happened the first day they met. She expected Glinda to say something like the Wicked Witch of the West was destroying something and Glinda came and rescued the innocent victims by using her power. Instead, Glinda muttered something about the floral arrangement for the party that evening and walked away. She asked Pete about it later and he told her the story about Fiyero and Glinda. He said that it hurt too much for Glinda and she wouldn't want to talk about it. Fayba never mentioned the Wicked Witch of the West to her mother again and asked all her questions to Pete.

"Wait, did you say that Lance came in here, asking you out?" Jasmine asked, breaking Fayba out of her thoughts.

"Ya, so?" Fayba questioned.

"Well you said yes right," Jasmine said, hoping that she did.

"No I declined his offer."

Jasmine gasped. "Why! Oh why would you say that?" Jasmine demanded, jumping off the bed and beginning to pace.

"I had a lot of unpacking to do and I wanted to be settled in before school starts tomorrow," Fayba said, clearly missing the reason why Jasmine was so upset.

"Yo- you had to unpack! You had to unpack! That was your excuse. Oh my, you have a lot to know and thank goodness I'm here to tell you. See you don't say no to Lance. When he asks, you better say yes. He controls the school; most of the people here went to my old school. It's a know fact that whoever you were at my old school, you are here and he was and is the most popular guy."

"So what's the problem? I don't see what you're-"

"I'm getting there," Jasmine interrupt, "You see Lance is very, very rarely turned down. In fact, there has only been one girl that turned him down. Her name was Sapphire. She said no and he basically annoyed her until she said yes."

"Wow isn't he such a gentleman," Fayba scoffed. She couldn't believe what an insensitive jerk he was. How could he do that to another person? If the Wicked Witch of the West had another a son, Fayba pictured Lance to be him.

"Oh well he treated her the same if not better when they dated and they dated for 19 days. Everyone thought she was going to break the record but I think that tipped Lance to dump her before she broke it. I guess he assumed if girls thought he dated someone the longest because she was a challenged, it would make it harder for him to get a date. Anyways I'm just warning you to be careful but don't worry, I gotcha back," Jasmine said.

"Thanks, but you're forgetting something," Fayba said smirking.

"What?" Jasmine asked, pressing her to continue.

"Everyone loves Glinda, the Good Witch of the North's daughter. Everyone will have my back," Fayba continued, "For once I'm glad that everyone wants to be my friend."

Jasmine faked smiled. "Ya let's hope he doesn't decide to do anything," she said as she went to her bed to unpack. She really hoped Lance wouldn't see this as a challenge because she knew he would never back away from a challenge.

---

Jasmine woke up with a smile on her face. She always loved the first day of school. Everything seemed new for a day. She was glad that she made friends with her roommate. She was scared all summer long, wondering if she would get along with her roommate. She was so scared that when she woke up yesterday, her mother thought she was sick. Her mother wanted her to stay the extra day and arrive the next just to make sure that it was nothing serious but Jasmine declined and they spent the rest of the morning arguing. Finally, her mother gave in and Jasmine was able to go to Shiz. This was the reason why she didn't arrive on time to hear the announcement of who her roommate was. Not knowing was killing her. Yesterday she had to use all her will power to not run down the hall to her dorm room. She was so glad that she got Fayba as a roommate not because she was the Good Witch of the North's daughter but because they got along so well. Jasmine could sense a friendship being born which made her very excited. She loved getting along with people and was so happy that her roommate was normal, well somewhat normal. She couldn't believe that Fayba turned down Lance. _How could anyone turn him down?_ She wondered.

Jasmine looked over at Fayba's bed and was a bit surprised that she wasn't there. She got up and walked over to the balcony that was connected to their room in search for her roommate. As she walked onto the balcony, she saw Fayba closing a notebook very quickly.

Fayba woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. She figured that she was nervous because today was the first day of school. At her old school, there were not many witches as animals there. Glinda allowed Fayba to go there only if she had a private tutor teaching her spells and magic on Saturday. She agreed, wanting to stay at the same school as Ruby and Ander. At Shiz though, the majority were witches, which scared the living daylights out of her. Fayba needed something to do that would calm her down. Luckily the sun was just rising which gave Fayba the idea to draw. She grabbed her drawing tools and her notebook and went onto the balcony. She sat in the chair and started drawing the scenery.

The scenery reminded her of the hill that she loved so much. She loved how it was so peaceful up there. She would sometimes wake up early and go to the hill to draw. Her notebooks were mostly full of pictures that were drawn on that hill. That hill was more of a home to her than the castle where she lived all her life was. In the castle, everyone would bother her but the hill gave her a chance to breathe. She would go on that hill once every two days at least. Every time she had something significant in her life, she went to the hill. She went up there on her birthdays, the day that she got her first kiss, and the day that she had her first brake-up, the day that her father died. Her father was the main reason why she loved that hill so much. He was the one that showed it to her. She used to go on that hill all the time with her father when she was younger. If that hill could talk, it could tell everything about Fayba's life. She loved that hill and now she wouldn't see it for a long time. Leaving that hill was one of the reasons why she really didn't want to go to Shiz. She was drawing when she heard someone walk on the balcony. She quickly closed her notebook and looked up, seeing Jasmine staring back at her, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Sorry reflex," Fayba said as she opened her notebook again. Jasmine nodded and relaxed a bit.

"Aren't you excited that it's the first day of school?" She asked, smiling.

"Floored," Fayba said standing up and walking back into the dorm room as Jasmine followed.

"Don't be like that. The first day is always fun and even more fun since you're friends with me. I can tell you who everyone is, what to eat, what differently not to eat. Aren't you glad that you have a friend that has been in boarding school all her life?"

Fayba smiled. At least she had a normal friend, not like the ones that pretend to be her friend because of who her mother is. "Ya I guess you're right, I love learning about knew things."

"That's the spirit!" Jasmine said, becoming more excited at every passing second.

Fayba and Jasmine walked into their first class after they finished breakfast. They were a couple minutes early as many of their other classmates were. The second Fayba walked into the room, she was again surrounded by people but at least this time there were less people than there were in the cafeteria. Fayba was nodding her head as a person in the group talked about how much he loved Glinda when someone walked into the room.

"People, people please leave the poor girl alone," a male voice said. Everyone turned and a couple girls screamed and started running towards him, pushing Fayba out of the way. Fayba was startled and ended up falling; luckily, Jasmine was nearby and helped her up. "It's nice to see all of you again too but since class is going to start soon, I think we should all sit instead of stand," the voice continued. As if it was a command instead of a suggestion, everyone started sitting down at their desks. Fayba had only seen one other person besides herself that could get people to do what ever she wanted which was her mother. Fayba looked at the person who had such power over people, seeing Lance standing there, staring back at her. His smirk grew once he saw her looking at him. He walked towards her, stopping only inches away from her. "We meet again," he said quietly, almost a whisper, Fayba nodded taking a step back. He looked over at Jasmine and smiled. "Hey Jamie," he said.

"Hey yourself," she said back, not really noticing that he just called her the wrong name.

"It's Jasmine," Fayba piped in, feeling that she was going to stick up for her friend even if Jasmine didn't seem to notice.

Lance looked back at her, "What?" he said, clearly confused.

"Her name is Jasmine not Jamie," she said, trying to make it as clear as she could.

"I know, that's just a nickname I call her," Lance said, not skipping a beat. He turned back to Jasmine. "Could I have a minute to talk to Fayba, privately," he asked her. Jasmine nodded quickly, delighted that he talked to her, and went to sit at an empty desk. "So I was wondering if you would like to go out with me today, unless you have more unpacking to do," Lance said once Jasmine left.

"Why so you can date me for a week, dump me then pretend you have a nickname for me when you call me the wrong name." Fayba said, getting angrier by the second.

"How 'bout I just call you honey now so that I won't forget," he said smirking.

Fayba scoffed, "Sorry, I'm washing my hair today and for the next couple of weeks. I won't be able to date for a while so how about you just give up," she said crossing her arms. She was prepared to stand her ground no matter what.

"Oh I never back away from a challenge," he said still smirking.

"Ya good luck with that," Fayba said. She turned away from him and started walking towards the desk next to Jasmine.

"Watch out, honey," Lance called after her.

Fayba turned around to face Lance. "Don't call me hon-" Fayba stopped talking because she felt something wet and sticky fall on her. She looked up and saw a bucket over her head. It then flipped upside down and honey spilled all over Fayba. She was so shocked that she had no time to scream. There was a huge grasp coming from the whole room, followed by laughter from Lance and a few of his friends that were around him. Fayba wiped the honey off her face the best she could and walked towards Lance, trying desperately not to scream at him.

"I told you to watch out for the honey," he said smiling, "but it's your lucky day. I know a spell that can get any liquid off quickly. All you have to do is agree to go on a date with me," he said still smiling, thinking that he won.

Fayba smiled back at him and as quick as the honey fell on her, it disappeared, leaving a very dry Fayba. "You mean a spell like that?" she asked, still smiling. She turned and walked towards Jasmine, leaving a very stunned Lance. "Oh and watch out for the honey," she said sitting down beside Jasmine.

"What hon-" and then he felt it, honey spilled all over him. Before he could get rid of it, Madame Torrible stepped in.

"Alright class, everyone sit down and-" Madame Torrible stopped talking and stared at Lance. "Lance is this how you decide to come to my class, drenched in whatever you are drenched in. Do you think this is a funny prank?" She said clearly disgusted at Lance.

"No, Madame Torrible, it wasn't-"

"Ah, I don't want to hear any excuses, leave my classroom and come back when you decide to take your education seriously," Madame Torrible said.

"But-"

"Just go!" Madame Torrible said pointing to the door. Lance sighed; he walked slowly to the door of the classroom, knowing that he wasn't going to win this time.

Fayba smiled, she was very excited that Lance got what he deserved. "This is going to be a very good day," she said to Jasmine.

Reviews are always welcome!


	5. Chapter 5: The Flawless Plan with Flaws

a/n thank you so much for the reviews. I appreciate all of them. Please review I would love to know what all of you think of the story.

disclaimer: I own nothing except the very dramatic characters that I made up.

Chapter 5: The Flawless Plan with Flaws

"Alright class is there anyone else who has liquid on them; if so please leave my classroom," Madame Torrible said to the class, everyone shook their heads. "Unbelievable, the first day of classes and I already have to discipline a student," she muttered to herself. "Anyways, in this class we are going to study people's motives. Why someone does something good and why another does something bad. The two witches that we will mostly be focusing on are Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West."

Fayba was a bit startled when she heard the name Elphaba. No one ever used the Wicked Witch of the West's first name. Most people are afraid to say it, thinking about the destruction and pain she has caused, and even when someone said the name, they had a hard time saying it. Madame Torrible said it with such ease that it was like a normal name, but of course, the name wasn't normal. No one would ever name there daughter Elphaba. The child would be ridiculed and the family would be accused of being one of the Wicked Witch of the West's followers. Even women who were named Elphaba before the Wicked Witch of the West changed their name, ashamed to share the same name with someone so evil. Fayba figured that Madame Torrible must have taught this course so many times that it didn't bother her anymore.

"Each of you will have a textbook, guard it with your life. You lose it, you write another one. The library will also help you with this course. There are many books telling what each witch has done. There are also books on the Wizard, Madame Morrible, and Dorothy, which will be useful when we study them," Madame Torrible said as she passed around the textbooks. Fayba made a mental note to go to the library today. She was planning to go this week anyways because Shiz is known for its amazing book collection. Now she thought she should go today so that she could look at some of the books that were for this course. Fayba jumped a bit when she heard the bell rang but quickly collected her books and followed Jasmine to their next class.

Fayba didn't see Lance for the rest of the day, which she was grateful for because she really didn't want to be bothered. She was so thankful that Madame Torrible walked in when she did because if she came a minute before, Fayba would have been kicked out of the class instead of Lance. Fayba really hated to miss class especially on the first day of school. She was happy though that the school day ended because she was able to go to the library and hopefully meet the librarian.

"Hello?" Fayba said as she stepped in. The library was huge and deafening silent. There were many tall and long shelves holding many books on them, and there were a couple of tables in front of the shelves for students to do their homework. It was sort of dark and gloomy in there but then again, most libraries were. Glinda didn't really care about the libraries in Oz. Unless someone asked her to fix one, she didn't touch them. 'I think people and animals matter more then books' Glinda once told Fayba. Fayba let go of the door and it slammed shut. "Spooky," she whispered. She walked towards the front desk as quietly as she could. "Hello? Anyone here?" she asked again.

"Hi there," a woman with white hair and huge thick glasses said, making Fayba jump back because she just popped out of nowhere. "Sorry, I like to read under the desk. Seems so peaceful except it's so hard to hear someone come in when you're under there. Anyways I'm Miss Libree, the librarian what can I be of assistance with?" the woman continued.

"Oh I just came to look around and take out a couple books."

"Alright you can go anywhere in the library that you want except the restricted section without supervision and anything in the restricted section has to stay in the library. So if you want to go in there, just ask me and I'll go in with you if I'm not busy, like now." Fayba nodded and smiled. Yes the librarian seemed a little bit weird but very helpful.

"Thanks, I'll just look around," Fayba said, stepping back and turning towards the books.

"Alright, sorry I didn't catch your name," Miss Libree said.

Fayba turned back, facing Miss Libree and put on a fake smile, she really hated meeting new people. "It's Fayba."

Miss Libree smiled. "Have you happened to meet a boy named Lance?" Fayba was really startled by this.

"Uh yes why?" Fayba said cautiously, not really knowing if she should have admitted that.

"And do you like him?"

"Not particularly, why?" Fayba asked again, still confused.

"No reason, just ring the bell at the front desk if you need anything," she said sitting on the floor behind the desk. Fayba was still confused at Miss Libree's questions but decided to just brush it off and went to the bookshelves. Under the desk, Miss Libree was smiling. "Glinda's daughter and Lance, my, my, some things never change," she whispered to herself.

Fayba was walking around, looking to see if any other book caught her eye. She already had three in her hand. She picked up another and started to read the back when she heard a high-pitched giggle near her. If asked, Fayba would say that she wasn't nosy and that usually you don't hear laughter in a library, so of course she had to investigate. The truth was though that she was a bit nosy. Fayba walked further back in the library until she saw who was giggling and who was with her.

"So then I said watch out, honey and of course she didn't believe me until the next thing she knows, she is covered in honey."

The girl continued to giggle. "Oh Lance that is so funny, you think of such funny things," giggle girl said and Fayba rolled her eyes.

"And then I offered to get the honey off her, since you know I'm such a nice guy but she was so angry that she ran out of the room before she let me finish my sentence," Lance said, smirking.

"Well it serves her right for calling Jasmine the wrong name then insist that it was a nickname," the girl said, still giggling. Fayba assumed that she must have drunk a whole gallon of giggling liquid because no one could possibly giggle that much normally. She was annoyed by giggle girl but was more annoyed that Lance was lying and decided to butt in.

"As I recall, I was the one that told you that you called Jasmine by the wrong name and then when I declined going on a date with you, you poured honey on me. You did offer to get the honey off me; at least you were telling some of the truth but only if I would go out with you. Little did you know I knew the spell to get honey off me and the spell to pour honey on you, which led you to be kicked out of the class. Karma's good," Fayba said and both Lance and giggle girl stared at her in shock.

"So you're Daphne," giggle girl assumed.

"No my name is Fayba, wow Lance you really do have a hard time with names."

"Fayba? As in daughter of Glinda?" giggle girl asked.

"The one and only," Fayba said smirking because Lance looked really nervous.

"Oh well it is nice to meet you but you must be mistaken because Lancey doesn't lie," giggle girl assured her. Fayba's smile grew wider once she heard the word Lancey come out of giggle girl's mouth.

"Oh well if Lancey doesn't lie then it must be true, I'm sure everyone in that class would back him up, why don't you ask them."

"I think that's unnecessary," Lance said, looking paler by the second.

"Why?" Giggle girl asked.

"Ya, why Lancey?" Fayba piped in.

"I think we should just drop it," he said.

"Did you lie to me?" Giggle girl asked, tears in her eyes. "You did, didn't you, well we are not dating anymore!" she said storming off.

"Bethany, come on," Lance called after her.

"Wow, she's a keeper. Better go after her," Fayba said.

"You know if you really wanted to go out with me, all you had to do was ask, you don't have to jealous," Lance said smirking at Fayba.

"Wow, you sure bounce back quickly," Fayba said.

"So how 'bout it," he said backing Fayba into a bookshelf and she rolled her eyes; he really liked to get physical. This time though, she was able to push him off.

"I will never go out with you!" Fayba said in an angry whisper, and then stormed off, leaving Lance by himself.

"Ah come on!" he shouted.

"Shhhhhhhh! This is a library," Miss Libree whispered making Lance jump.

"Where did you come from?" he asked.

"From the stars," she said sarcastically, (at least that was what Lance hoped), "now be quiet or I will be forced to kick you out," she continued. She then turned and walked away, towards the front desk, being the third person in less than a minute to walk away from Lance, leaving him stunned.

After Fayba stormed off, she checked out her books that she had, and went to her dorm room. When she got there, Jasmine was standing at the door eagerly waiting for her arrival. Once Jasmine spotted her, she started jumping up and down.

"There you are. Where have you been?" Jasmine questioned.

"The library," Fayba said, motioning to the books that she was carrying.

"Why?" Jasmine asked, looking a bit shocked. "No teacher assigns homework on the first day."

"I took books out to read," Fayba replied, walking into the room and putting the books on her bed and dropping her bag on the ground.

"Wait you took out books to read, for fun," Jasmine asked as she followed Fayba into the room.

"Yes."

"Ew," Jasmine said completely disgusted that someone would actually voluntarily read.

"Why were you waiting for me outside the dorm room anyways?" Fayba asked, trying to change the subject.

Jasmine forgot about her disgust with Fayba reading for fun and started jumping up and down again. "These came for you," she said, pointing to the flowers on Fayba's desk. Fayba walked to the flowers and held them up, looking for the card. "It's right there," Jasmine said, pointing to the envelope beside the flowers.

Fayba opened it and read the card aloud, afraid that Jasmine would soon faint if she wasn't told what the card said. "'Dear Fayba, I enjoy spending every minute I am with you even though most of the time you are declining my offer to go on a date with me. I hope that this will change your mind. Waiting for your answer, Lance.'" Once she read the card, the flowers became butterflies, flew around for a second then went back as flowers. "How romantic," Fayba said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Jasmine didn't seem to catch the sarcasm. "Aw isn't that sweet," she said, still in la la land.

"Very," Fayba replied, walking towards the dorm room door. She opened it and stepped in a girl's path that was passing the room. "Here," Fayba said handing her the flowers, "happy birthday."

"It's not my birthday," the girl said, completely confused.

"These are beautiful flowers just take them and run," Fayba said shoving the flowers into the girl's hand and shutting the dorm door in her face.

"Why'd you do that?" Jasmine asked.

"Because I don't want to date him so keeping the flowers will seem like he won the round, I couldn't let that happen," Fayba said, walking onto the balcony.

"You're just being stubborn!" Jasmine called as she rolled her eyes.

---

Lance had been pacing back and forth for the past week. Once he got back to his room after his classes, he'd ignore his homework and would pace. He couldn't understand Fayba. Usually he was so good at figuring out girls that most guys asked him for advice about the female mind. He got any girl he wanted just by snapping his figures. Well there was one girl that didn't want to date him, Penny, no Paula, no that's not it. Well whatever her name was, she agreed to date him the third time he asked her. Every girl agreed to go on a date with him, except Fayba. He had asked Fayba at least twice a day in the past week. That was at least fourteen times and she turned him down every time. He couldn't understand the reason why, yes her roommate was Jasmine and they did date but he always made sure girls still liked him after they dated. Jasmine wouldn't say anything negative about him, _or would she?_ Lance pondered. He couldn't imagine why Jasmine would say something bad about him, she seemed to still like him even though he called her the wrong name on the first day of school.

"Dude if you keep pacing you're going to create a whole in our floor. Look I can already see the path where you pace every night," Lance's roommate Conlan said. Lance continued to pace, staring at the ground, still deep in thought. "Dude!" Conlan shouted, causing Lance to jump.

"What?" Lance questioned, looking up.

"What are you thinking about I have never seen you in deep thought since, well, I've never seen you think actually so what's bugging you?" Conlan asked.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Lance said sitting down on his bed.

"Dude you can tell me, please tell me, it's driving me crazy with the pacing back and forth," Conlan said.

Lance sighed. "It's just, there's this girl that keeps rejecting me when I ask her on a date and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've been charming, sending her flowers and love letters but she sends back the letters and gives away the flowers."

"Well I think dumping honey on Fayba's head to get her to date you wasn't that charming but funny," Conlan said, looking down at his homework, trying to get as much done before Lance starts to pace again.

"How did you know about that, you're not in that class?" Lance asked.

"Please. Everyone knows. It was the main gossip at lunch that day."

"Does everyone know then that-"

"You've been trying to get Fayba to date you, ya, pretty much."

Lance groaned and lied down on his bed, covering his eyes with his hands. "Perfect, just perfect. Everyone knows that I have been shot down more times than any man in Oz history."

"Which would kind of give you the hint to give up and move on to the next bubbly girl that would love to date you for a week," Conlan said while trying to do a question in his head, which wasn't going so well.

"No I just have to keep thinking of a plan that will make her say yes," Lance said as he stood up and began to pace again.

"That's it!" Conlan shouted in frustration. "I can't take it anymore! I'm going to the library so I can think and not listen to you pace and mumble!" he said collecting his books and leaving the dorm room while Lance continued to pace, not realizing that his roommate just left.

Conlan slowly entered the library, trying not to disturb any other person that was trying to do their homework. He was a bit surprised to see only one student in the library, doing their homework. He figured though, every other student had a considerate roommate that didn't pace until they decided to go to sleep. He walked closer to the tables, deciding to go to an empty one to do his homework until he saw the face of the student.

He walked up to the table the student was sitting at. "So you're Fayba," he said standing at the table, making Fayba look up. She was at bit annoyed at whoever approached her.

"That's me, and you are…" Fayba said trying to speed up the conversation so she could finish her homework.

"Conlan and I hope you know you are the reason why I am going insane," he said sitting down, across from Fayba.

"And why is that?" Fayba asked, still annoyed. If he said he was madly in love with her, she was going to get herself kicked out of the school because that was all she needed, another stalker.

"Lance is my roommate, the person you keep turning down for a date. Every night he paces in the room, deep in thought, which makes it very hard for me to do my homework, thus making me resort to the library."

"And I hope you know that I have to resort to doing my homework in the library because my roommate keeps bugging me to date Lance," Fayba said looking back down at her homework; she only had two questions left and she wanted to get them done quickly.

"What's wrong with the library?" Miss Libree asked, again appearing out of nowhere.

"How did you do that?" Conlan asked.

"By walking," she said in a 'duh' tone.

"Nothing is wrong with the library, we just like to do our homework in peace and we can't seem to get that in our dorm rooms," Fayba said, making sure Miss Libree didn't feel insulted. "We love the library," she continued.

"Alright then, carry on," Miss Libree said, walking towards the front desk.

"How did she do that?" Conlan asked Fayba once Miss Libree was out of earshot. Fayba shrugged her shoulders and Conlan decided to just drop it and went back to the reason to why he was talking to Fayba. "If your roommate is such a bother then why don't you do everyone a favour and go out with Lance," he suggested.

"Well why don't you do me a favour and convince Lance to move on and stop pestering me," Fayba suggested back.

"He won't. He sees this as a challenge."

"Well I have dignity I want to keep so we are just going to have to suck it up. Now if you excuse me, I'm done my homework and I have to help my roommate with hers," she said standing up, saying goodbye to Miss Libree, and leaving and library.

A couple minutes later, Lance came running in making as much noise as possible. "Conlan I got it! I have the perfect plan! Even you will think that it is full proof!" he yelled not really realizing or caring that he was in a library. He stopped right in front of the table, across from Conlan.

"Shhhhhhhh! This is a library!" Miss Libree whispered harshly at Lance. Conlan was again surprised; he didn't see her walk up to the table.

"Ya, ya I know, I'll be quieter," Lance said. Miss Libree nodded and went back to the front desk.

"So what's your great plan?" Conlan asked while looking at his homework, not really caring about the plan.

"It's top secret, come to the dorm room when you're done whatever you are doing and I will tell you then," Lance whispered. He then ran through the library door, letting it slam shut behind him.

---

The next day, Lance and Conlan walked into the cafeteria for lunch with their trays full of food. "Dude I'm telling you the plan had flaws, big ones that will only end badly," Conlan said trying desperately to talk his friend out of going through with the plan.

Lance didn't seem to hear him, he was looking for Fayba. He knew what table she sat at but she wasn't there yet. Then he saw her, walking with her own tray full of food. Beside her was Jasmine talking about one thing or another. They sat down at the table and Fayba immediately became the center of attention.

Lance walked towards the table and Conlan followed, hoping that maybe he could stop the situation in turning into a terrible one. Once they reached the table, everyone immediately made room for him and Conlan. Lance sat beside Fayba but there wasn't enough room for Conlan to sit next to Lance, which would make it harder for him to keep Lance in line. There was enough room for Conlan to sit next to Jasmine, and he immediately felt a bit shy. He always had a crush on Jasmine, even before Lance took an interest in her but he was always afraid to make a move. He knew Jasmine was like every other girl, she fell for Lance and saw Conlan as the dorky best friend. Conlan decided this to be just business and not let his feelings get in the was because he had to make sure Lance wasn't going to do something stupid. Who was he kidding though, Lance usually did something stupid but Conlan was at least going to try.

When he sat down next to Jasmine, she turned her attention away from Fayba and towards Conlan in hopes that Fayba and Lance would talk and then date. Everyone else around the table started talking amongst themselves because they knew Lance would want a private conversation with Fayba and Jasmine and Conlan weren't popular enough to hold everyone's attention.

"So how are you liking Shiz?" Jasmine asked Conlan.

"I really like it. I love my classes and teachers, how about you?" He said, tearing his eyes away from Lance but keeping an ear open to listen to Lance and Fayba's conversation.

"I love it. Fayba is a really good roommate." Conlan smiled because he knew about Jasmine's roommate the year before at their old school, and knew Jasmine called her the devil. "What classes do you have?" Jasmine asked, trying to continue their conversation.

Conlan tried to say his classes and still keep some focus on Fayba and Lance's conversation but couldn't do both at the same time. He decided to say his classes as quickly as he could and ask Jasmine what her classes were. Jasmine said her classes and talked about which one she liked the best but Conlan was having trouble listening to both conversations. He nodded his head trying to make sure Jasmine didn't think he was ignoring her until Fayba stood up and shouted.

"How dare you, you jerk!" Fayba yelled.

"Me a jerk, well at least I'm not a spoiled princess! Oh look at me I'm Fayba, the daughter of Glinda the Good Witch of the North," Lance mocked also standing up.

"You don't know anything about me!" Fayba shouted, causing everyone in the cafeteria to stop talking to listen to the screaming match.

"Oh yes I do, you are just a spoiled brat who gets everything she wants because her daddy died! People don't like you, they pity you!" Lance blurted out but the wished he could take it back, seeing the tears in Fayba's eyes.

Fayba grabbed her sandwich; she was angrier than she ever had been her entire life and threw it at Lance, then grabbing her drink, poured it over his head. Lance stood there in shock as well as everyone else. Lance grabbed his drink and threw it at Fayba, causing everyone to gasp.

"Food fight!" someone shouted and every student started throwing food.

Fayba jumped on Lance pulling him down and both started rolling around the floor, kicking and screaming. Conlan grabbed Jasmine and pulled her under the table where they would be protected. Yes, that plan was not full proof and yes, Lance did something stupid. Conlan shook his head; he felt that he should have known that there was going to be a food fight. How he did not see this coming surprised him.

Madame Torrible ran as fast as she could to the cafeteria once a teacher told her that there was a food fight. Never in two hundred years at Shiz had there been a food fight, she was appalled and was going to punish whoever started the fight. She burst threw the doors and blew the emergency whistle that was made for a time like this. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped whatever they were doing whether it was throwing or ducking. It seemed like time stood still, until a garbage can fell over and Lance and Fayba appeared, still rolling on the ground attacking each other the best they could. Two teachers grabbed them and pulled them apart, which brought back Lance and Fayba to reality. The teachers held them but at a distance because not only did they have food on them but garbage too since they rolled around the floor.

"Who started this?" Madame Torrible demanded. She was so angry that it was surprising she didn't blow something up. Everyone, in fear of Madame Torrible, pointed to Lance and Fayba, including a few teachers. Madame Torrible turned to them. "Fantastic," she muttered under her breath. "I want every student to clean this mess up, now!" Madame Torrible shouted. Suddenly brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies appeared for the students to grab and clean up. "Except for you two," Madame Torrible said pointing to Lance and Fayba. "You two follow me."

The teachers let go of the two students and they followed Madame Torrible to her office. "Please have a seat," Madame Torrible said to Lance and Fayba. "Now what seems to be the problem?" she asked, once everyone was seated.

Neither Lance nor Fayba said anything. Fayba just stared at the floor, ashamed at what she did; her mother would have a hoot if she found out. Well, when she finds out, Fayba assumed Madame Torrible was going to tell the parents. Lance just stared at Madame Torrible. He was afraid if he said something, Fayba would blow up, say her side of the story and that would be it for Lance. He would be sent back home to be home schooled, never to see his friends again.

"No one wants to tell me what happened? Fine, I really don't care anyways, let's just move onto the punishment. Now since Fayba hasn't gotten in trouble yet so far and Lance only had that prank on the first day of school and since everyone joined the food fight I am going to let this go with a warning." Both Fayba and Lance looked at Madame Torrible in complete shock.

"So you aren't going to tell our parents or kick us out?" Lance asked.

"That is correct except I would like you two to get along so in my class, you will have to sit next to each other and if there is another fight of any kind what so ever, both of you will be punished severely. Do I make myself clear?" Both Fayba and Lance nodded their heads. "Good, now go clean up. I'm sure the cafeteria is clean since I didn't say they couldn't use magic." Lance and Fayba stood up and left Madame Torrible's office as quickly as they could.

They both used magic on themselves once they were outside the office, getting off whatever was on them. Conlan and Jasmine were outside the office waiting for them, both clean and free of food.

"So what's the damage?" Jasmine asked.

"We got a warning and we have to sit beside each other during Madame Torrible's class," Fayba said as she started walking, taking her school bag from Jasmine who collected it for her.

"Really, wow it pays off being the daughter of the Good Witch of the North sometimes," Jasmine said as they continued walking.

Conlan and Lance were still outside Madame Torrible's office, neither of them talking but Conlan decided to break the silence. "No flaws huh," he said.

"Well there might have been a couple of small loop holes," Lance said, starting to walk to his next class.

"Uh-huh only a couple of small ones," Conlan replies as he followed Lance, shaking his head.

Reviews are always welcome!


	6. The assignment that brings up questions

disclaimer: as you all know I own practically nothing except the characters that I made up and the grammar errors.

**WARNING:** THIS CHAPTER HAS SOME SPOILERS FOR THE MUSICAL SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN WICKED THE MUSCIAL AND HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK READ IF YOU DON'T MIND SPOILERS. IF YOU READ THE BOOK OR SEEN THE MUSICAL, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THIS WARNING.

Chapter 6: The Assignment that Brings Up Questions

Lance toned down the scheming after the food fight. That was not how he imagined his plan to turn out. Although, Conlan did point out that bringing up her dead father may not be the greatest idea to get her to date him but Lance had his mind set to the plan and he was going to stick to it no matter what. Fayba didn't say a word to him since that day. He tried to apologize when he saw her or tried to bring up a meaningless conversation in class just to talk to her but Fayba ignored it all. She was all miss sunshine with other people but with him, she wouldn't even say hello. He hated not being able to talk to her, he actually felt guilty and he never feels guilty. He felt so guilty that he couldn't even ask out a girl because he only thought about Fayba. Conlan told him that he was falling for her but he was wrong. Lance never falls for a girl, especially a girl that doesn't like him back. So here he was, a week later, giving up trying to talk to Fayba and deciding to actually pay attention in class, even though she was there, sitting right beside him.

Fayba wasn't angry at Lance despite what everyone thought. Her mother taught her not to hold grudges, and Pete seconded that. They both told her that it was unladylike and the daughter of Glinda the Good Witch of the North could not hold grudges because it would look bad for her mother. Fayba bet that Pete and Glinda would have frowned upon the food fight that she caused in the cafeteria about a week ago. Even though Madame Torrible decided not to tell her mother, she was sure the news would make it to Glinda, so she wasn't surprised when she got a letter two days after the food fight from Pete. It was all about how it was a disgrace to show the emotion, anger to her fellow pears and teachers, a quote from her mother. Fayba was a bit surprised though that Pete wrote the letter instead of her mother. She expected her mother to be so angry that she would have insisted on writing the letter but she figured her mother was probably busy with one function or another that was going on at Emerald city. The letter ended with Pete asking why she started a food fight and Fayba chose not to answer that question. She instead wrote back that she was fine, but very sorry and then talked about Jasmine and her classes.

Fayba didn't really want to relive the reason why she threw a sandwich at Lance, which was the cause of the food fight. She thought about what Lance commented about her father the rest of that day but decided that it wasn't true and she shouldn't think about it anymore. She took her own advise and chose to be in denial about the day. It was a bit hard though because Lance kept bringing up the day by apologizing over and over again every time he saw her. This ended up being everyday since they sat next to each other in Madame Torrible's class. Fayba decided just to ignore him and listen to Madame Torrible in hopes that he would get the message that she didn't want to talk to him. This plan wasn't going so well since he just passed her a note. Fayba opened it and read I'm sorry. She rolled her eyes and wrote back that she was trying to listen to Madame Torrible's instructions and to stop bugging her. Lance didn't write anything back.

"I do this every year in this course. Each of you will look at a particular person and decide what their motives were behind their actions. If you look at the sheet that I just handed out, you will see that you have a choice on who you will be studying. Your choices are the Wizard, Madame Morrible, Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch of the North or Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West. You can find the information in your textbook or at the library. Please tell me by the end of the class whom you will be studying. That will give you ten minutes to decide and to start the project. If you have any questions, you can ask me. Just to make sure everyone sees it, at the bottom of the page, it says the due date, which is one week from tomorrow, which is when we will start the presentations. The presentations have to be at least five minutes long. Any questions? None? Good," Madame Torrible said as she sat down at her desk.

Immediately a couple student went up to her, telling her which ones they were doing. Fayba looked over at the sheet again. She certainly did not want to study her mother's motives. She loved her mother but it would just be too awkward to talk about her as if she wasn't her mother. Madame Morrible didn't seem to interesting. She was the principal of Shiz then became second man to the wizard and the rest they keep a secret. The Wizard would be hard to do a project on since even the people that wrote the books on him never saw his face. The only time he ever showed his face in public was the day that he left on that balloon and he never came back. Fayba looked at her choices. All that was left were Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy was a possibility but for some reason, Fayba felt that something was calling her, telling her to study the Wicked Witch of the West. _It certainly wouldn't be boring._ Fayba thought, debating who she was going to pick.

Fayba chose who she was going to study and got up from her desk, walking towards Madame Torrible. No one else was at her desk since pretty much everyone picked who they would be studying. Madame Torrible was writing something down when she walked up to her. She looked up and smiled once she saw Fayba standing there.

"Have you picked who you are going to study?" Madame Torrible asked.

Fayba nodded. "I would like to do Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West."

Madame Torrible was a bit taken back at this. "Really? Not many people pick her; in fact, you are the only one from this class who has chosen her. Why?" Madame Torrible questioned.

"I don't know, I just had a gut feeling I guess," Fayba said, which was the honest to god truth. She had no idea why she was picking the Wicked Witch of the Witch.

"Alright, the Wicked Witch of the West it is. Be sure to go to the library, we have many books on her." Fayba nodded and walked back to her seat.

"Who'd you pick?" Lance asked as she sat down. Fayba sighed, she had been giving Lance the silent treatment for the week and decided to be ladylike. Wouldn't her mother be proud.

"I picked Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Who did you pick?" she said. Lance looked a bit shocked and she wasn't sure if it was because of who she picked or because she was talking to him.

"Madame Morrible," he said. Fayba nodded and looked down at her sheet so she could start the project. "I'm sorry," Lance whispered and Fayba rolled her eyes.

"I know. I got that the first fifty times you said it," she said, not looking up from her paper.

"And yet you haven't accepted any of them," Lance replied.

"I have," she reassured him.

"Oh sorry, my mistake, I guess the silent treatment made me think otherwise."

"Well I needed space now I forgive you and let's move on."

"You mean move on and go on a date?" Lance asked as the bell rang.

Fayba laughed. "You never give up," she said, leaving the classroom.

---

After classes, Fayba walked into the library and went to the front desk to ring the bell. She thought this was going to be an easy project. Her motive for doing all of that destruction was probably because she wanted power or wanted revenge on those who teased her because of her green skin. She expected Miss Libree to appear from under the desk but instead, she jumped when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hi Fayba, how are you?" Miss Libree asked.

Fayba turned around and smile. "Just fine," she said.

"Are you sure something isn't troubling you because you seem awfully jumpy, well than again every student now a days seems to be jumpy," Miss Libree said.

"How 'bout that," Fayba replied. "Um, Miss Libree I was wondering if the library has any books on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West," Fayba continued. "It's for a project."

"Oh of course we have books here on her. In fact, she has the most books written about her, I guess everyone wants to try to make sense of her actions. They are all in the restricted section though so you will have to work here," Miss Libree said.

They both started walking to the back of the library, towards the restricted section. Fayba hadn't made it all the way back here yet, she was still working on books that were on the front shelves. She was looking around, seeing the categories books were placed in when she saw a label that said yearbooks. Miss Libree stopped walking when she saw Fayba looking at the yearbooks.

"We order an extra one every year so that it can go into the library. We only buy one because the library keeps every yearbook and there are so many years that Shiz has been a school." Fayba nodded and they continued to walk to the restricted section.

Miss Libree grabbed dozens of books, handed some to Fayba and they both carried them to the tables at the front of the library. Fayba sat down and grabbed a random book, she was going to have to spend all her free time in the library since there were so many books on the Wicked Witch of the West and she wanted to read all of them.

She was sitting there, reading for about six hours when she noticed something. She grabbed one of the other books that she read before and opened it quickly, trying to find the page. She stopped turning the pages once she found it and grabbed her pen. She wrote something in her notebook and circled it. She tapped her pen on the table, thinking what to do next and decided to talk to Miss Libree who was sitting on the floor behind the desk.

"Miss Libree," Fayba said, which made Miss Libree jump and hit her head on the desk.

She stood up while rubbing her head. "Oh Fayba, you startled me, you shouldn't sneak up at people like that," she said, which made Fayba smile.

"Sorry Miss Libree, I'll be more careful. Anyways I was wondering if you happened to have a book on the cowardly lion."

"I do, it's in the restricted section," she said walking towards the back of the library as Fayba followed. "Can I ask why you want a book on the cowardly lion?"

"Oh well I found something interesting in one of the books," Fayba said.

"And what was so interesting?" Miss Libree asked, pressing Fayba to continue.

"I was reading the book, 'The Early Years' and it said that Elphaba was an animal rights activist."

Miss Libree nodded, "Yes that is true, she wanted animals to have the same rights as people do. Is that it?"

"No, when I was reading 'Destruction that She Cause,' it said that she took away the cowardly lion's courage making him, well, a coward but why would she do that if she was for animal rights?"

Miss Libree smiled for a split second but Fayba didn't see it. "I have no idea," she said as she pulled out the only book on the cowardly lion.

Fayba took it and walked quickly back to the table to read it. Once she finished reading the book, she was writing things down in her notebook. She realized that it didn't make sense that Elphaba would take away a lion's courage. Why would she if she was for animal rights and why only him? She decided to make a time line of Elphaba's life and of all the things she supposedly did. She closed the book, wanting to know more about Elphaba's life at Shiz.

She stood up and walked to the yearbook section. She knew the year that Elphaba went to Emerald city, most people called it the lost year because that was when Elphaba became evil. Fayba started looking at the yearbooks, trying to find the year when she saw that the year had two yearbook copies instead of one. Fayba grabbed both books and went to the front desk to find Miss Libree.

"Miss Libree," Fayba called.

"Yes," she said from behind her, which made Fayba jump. "What can I help you with?" she asked, walking behind the desk.

"You said that you ordered only one extra yearbook copy each year," Fayba said, making sure she heard Miss Libree correctly.

"Yes, I said that, why?"

"Well I found two copies for this year," Fayba said, placing both copies on the desk. Miss Libree eyes widened. "Why would there be two copies?" Fayba asked.

Miss Libree looked at the books then back at Fayba. "It's because one of them is hers. She must have misplaced it and any misplaced yearbooks are sent back to Shiz for the student to claim it but she never did. It was placed in the library ever since," Miss Libree said, touching both yearbooks as if there was more to the story.

"She who?" Fayba questioned.

"Elphaba," Miss Libree whispered.

Fayba looked at the yearbooks, surprised that one of them was the Wicked Witch of the West's. She grabbed one of the yearbooks and opened the front cover, then the back in search for signings from fellow students. Seeing none, she moved to the other one. She opened the book and saw a long one at the front top corner.

"'Dear Elphie,'" she read out loud, "'isn't this exciting, going to Emerald city to see the Wizard! I know you're going to read this in a second so does this dress make me look fat? Oh, who am I kidding, I could never look fat in anything, silly me. Anyways, I'm so excited, are you? Well of course you are! Seeing the Wizard has been both our dreams since like forever! Well that's it, see you in like two secs since you're sitting beside me on the train. Toodles! Your BFF, Glinda. Ps. see I didn't use the 'a'. I think I like my name better since I dropped the 'a'. Thank you Dr. Dillomond!'" Fayba stopped reading and looked at Miss Libree in utter shock. "The Wicked Witch of the West and my mother were best friends!" Fayba shouted.

"You didn't know? Well of course, I should have figured, it's not something your mother would brag about. Actually so few know that I don't even think that piece of information is in any of those books," Miss Libree said.

"How do you know then?" Fayba asked, not taking her eyes off the yearbook signing.

"Oh well I've been the librarian at Shiz for many, many years. I remember when they became friends. I was chaperoning one of Shiz's dances at the Ozdust Ballroom and I saw it all. Elphaba got Glinda into the Sorcery class that she wanted and Glinda in return, accepted Elphaba as a friend."

"Then what happened? Why did they turn on each other at Emerald city? They were friends on the way there, what do you think happened?" Fayba asked and Miss Libree paused for a second, thinking about what she should say next.

"Well, let me ask you this, why was there only four people in the room when your mother was deemed the Good Witch of the North? Don't you think they would have made it a public event," Miss Libree then stopped, she knew she couldn't say too much to her, she promised not to tell anyone. Fayba nodded and looked at the time, not noticing Miss Libree's sudden stop.

"Could I take some restricted book to my dorm room please, it's almost curfew and if I'm not at my dorm in time, I get a detention," Fayba pleaded as Miss Libree shook her head.

"Sorry, I can't, it's against the rules but I'll tell you what, I will open the library two hours before classes start tomorrow for you to do more research," Miss Libree offered.

Fayba nodded and smiled. "Alright, can you save those books so I won't have to look for them tomorrow and can I take out this book," Fayba said, pointing to Elphaba's yearbook and Miss Libree nodded.

After she checked out the yearbook, Fayba grabbed her stuff and ran out of the library to make it to her room before curfew. "She may be the answer to this twenty year problem," Miss Libree mumbled to herself as she started to collect the books to put aside.

Fayba saw Jasmine waiting for her at the dorm room. "There you are," Jasmine said as Fayba walked in the room. "I thought you weren't going to make it, where were you anyways?" Jasmine asked.

"Library," Fayba said, pulling out her notebook and Elphaba's yearbook and placed them on her bed.

"Library? Why? I don't bug you about Lance anymore."

"I wanted to start working on the project."

"Wait, you decided to start a project on the first day it was assigned?" Jasmine asked.

"Ya," Fayba said as she sat on her bed and began to look at Elphaba's yearbook.

"Ew, that's almost as bad as reading for fun."

Fayba laughed. "Hey who are you doing your project on?" Fayba asked.

"Dorothy. I chose her because she was a teenage girl when she came to Oz and I'm a teenage girl now, see the connection?"

"Clearly," Fayba said, rolling her eyes.

"Who did you pick?" Jasmine asked.

"Elphaba."

"Elphaba? As in the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"Yup."

"Wow. I've never heard of anyone just say her first name. Even Madame Torrible says the title after the name."

"Ya well it's just easier than saying the full title and besides all of the books that I read use just her first name. What's the big deal?"

Jasmine was a bit shocked. Most people would never even say the Wicked Witch of the West's first name and here Fayba was saying it with such ease. She then thought why it was such a terrible word to say and couldn't think of a reason.

"Hey what are you looking at?" Jasmine asked, trying to change the subject.

"Elphaba's yearbook."

"Really?" Jasmine said sitting beside Fayba. "Wow look, your mom is in like every picture," Jasmine continued.

Fayba nodded. "And beside her is always Elphaba."

"Wow, they look so normal."

"And happy. Total BFFs."

"Who's that?" Jasmine asked, pointing at the male teenager with his arm around both Glinda and Elphaba in a picture. Fayba looked below for a name.

"Fiyero," Fayba read.

"The scarecrow? He knew Elphaba?"

"I guess," Fayba said as she turned the page.

"Something doesn't seem right," Jasmine said.

"What?" Fayba asked, pressing Jasmine to continue.

"Look at Fiyero and Elphaba in this picture," she said turning back the page and pointing to the photo they just looked at.

"What about it?" Fayba asked not seeing what Jasmine was connecting.

"He looks awkward in touching her. If they were friends, he wouldn't have a problem with having his arm around her."

"So? Maybe they weren't that close," Fayba insisted. There had to be a perfectly normal reason to why Fiyero looked a bit awkward.

"Ya, but if you look at this picture," Jasmine said, turning the page, pointing to another picture. In this picture, Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero weren't looking directly at the camera. Glinda and Elphaba were beside each other with Fiyero across from them at one of the cafeteria's lunch tables. "He's looking at Elphaba, not Glinda even though Glinda is clearly talking in the picture. And in this one," she continued, pointing to a picture of just Elphaba and Glinda. She pointed to Fiyero, who was in the background. "Look, he's staring at Elphaba, not Glinda. Weird huh," Jasmine said, jumping off Fayba's bed and going to her own to finish her homework.

"Ya weird," Fayba said, sill staring at the pictures. Was this the reason why Elphaba and her mother became enemies? _Did Fiyero maybe like Elphaba, the friend with the brains instead of Glinda, the friend with the looks?_ Fayba wondered. It was a possibility but Fayba couldn't help shake off the feeling that there was so much more to the story then just two BFFs fighting over a boy.

---

Fayba spent all of her free time at the library. Miss Libree opened the library two hours earlier each morning for Fayba to work on the project. Fayba came in the morning, during lunch, and after school. Her notebook that was once filled with drawings was now filled with notes about Elphaba. There were arrows everywhere as she tried to connect something that would make sense of the story. Why was Elphaba green? Why was her sister not be able to walk until suddenly, one day she can, with the help of the red shoes that everyone said was so powerful. Were those shoes really powerful? How did the tin man lose his heart and became tin? How did the cowardly lion lose his courage? How did Dorothy get here? Did Fiyero cheat on Glinda with Elphaba? And the million dollar question, what happened in Emerald city that cause Glinda and Elphaba to become enemies? These were only a few of the questions that Fayba had written down. She found that the more she investigated, the more questions popped up with very few of them answered. She stared at the sheet, hoping that something, anything would jump out at her, telling her the answer. Her essay was due in two days and she had no idea what she was going to say. Fayba put her head down and started banging on the table.

"Hey, hey," Miss Libree said. "Stop that! We'll have to call home if you get a concussion," she continued and Fayba looked up.

"That's it! Why didn't I think of that before!" she said standing up quickly.

"You didn't think of what?" Miss Libree questioned, completely confused.

"I can ask my mother, can you call her?"

Miss Libree shook her head. "We only call parents if a child is sick or did something wrong or extremely homesick."

"But this is for a school project, doesn't that count? Please Miss Libree," Fayba begged.

"Well… alright," Miss Libree said, walking to the front desk as Fayba followed. She pulled out a huge bowl from below the desk, which made Fayba wonder what else she had under there. Miss Libree filled the bowl with water, chanted a spell, and then turned the bowl to face Fayba. "It's calling; someone's image will appear in the water once they pick up." Fayba looked in the bowl and a moment later, Pete appeared. Fayba recognized that Pete was in the dinning room of the castle.

"Fayba? Why are you calling? Is something wrong?" he asked, looking very worried.

"No, I just want to talk to mom, it's for a project."

Pete hesitated. "Uh, your mother isn't, uh, here right now," he stuttered.

"Then where is she, I can call her there," Fayba said. She really wanted to talk to her mother.

"Oh, uh, actually she is here, I uh, forgot but she is very busy." Fayba knew something wasn't right. Pete never lied and he was clearly lying now. Fayba took a closer look at Pete and saw the dark circles under his eyes and saw how stressed he looked.

"What's wrong?" Fayba asked, forgetting why she called.

"Nothing, everything's fine," Pete said quickly, trying to reassure her.

"Uh, Fayba, you don't have much time left," Miss Libree whispered.

"Pete since mom is busy, maybe you can help me," Fayba said knowing that Pete wasn't going to say what was bothering him.

"Alright," Pete replied while nodding his head. He was glad Fayba decided to change the subject because he wasn't so sure how much longer he could have lied to Fayba about something so important.

"Well, you were there the day that Elphaba put a spell to give monkeys wings in Emerald city, right."

"Right," Pete said cautiously.

"And that was the same day mom was deemed the Good Witch of the North right." Pete continued to nod. "Well are you sure that Elphaba was the one that cast the spell, I mean if she was jealous of Glinda, wouldn't she have taken it out on her instead of innocent animals."

"Yes I am sure that she did it. I saw her read from the Wizard's spell book and-"

"Wait, the Wizard's spell book?"

"Yes, then after she read from the book, she stole it."

"Why would the Wizard have a spell that would give monkeys wings if he was good?" Fayba muttered to herself.

"I have no idea," Pete said.

"Unless he wasn't as good of a person as everyone thought he was. What kind of person would just leave one day and never come back?"

"I don't know but Fayba, I should be going, it was nice talking to you-"

"Wait! Pete, one last thing. Can you get mom's yearbook and read me Elphaba's signing, please," Fayba begged.

Pete sighed. "Wait a second, I'll go get it." He ran quickly to the library, knowing exactly where the yearbook was. Glinda looked at it from time to time, imaging about how things use to be. He grabbed the yearbook and ran back to the dinning room. He had no idea why Fayba wanted to know what Elphaba said and wasn't sure if he should tell her but he figured he wasn't telling her something very important so he felt that he at least owed her this.

Pete opened the cover once he got back to the bowl. "It says 'Dear Glinda, yes I am very excited to go see the Wizard and yes I love your name since you decided to drop the 'a'. I'm so happy you decided to come with me to Emerald city. I couldn't imagine this trip to be as much fun without you. You are truly my best friend. And yes, we are very close now as the conductor just said. Your friend, Elphaba,'" Pete finished reading and looked at Fayba, who seemed to be deep in thought. "Uh, Fayba, I got to go, it was nice talking to you, keep writing okay," Pete said.

Fayba nodded. "Bye," she said as she saw Pete's image fade away until the water in the bowl became clear again.

"Fayba? Fayba what are you thinking?" Miss Libree asked. Fayba took her eyes off the bowl and looked at Miss Libree.

"I was thinking, I am thinking that I finally know what to write for my project."

---

Fayba ran into Madame Torrible's classroom just as the bell rang. She spent that morning in the library, finishing her project. She was really nervous. Her project was differently going to be unique but then again, what wasn't unique in her life?

"Alright class I want everyone's essay on my desk before we start the presentations. It said on the instruction sheet, you will lose marks if you read off your essay so I am not even going to give you that option," Madame Torrible said after the bell rang. Everyone got up and handed her their essay. "Alright, who wants to go first?" she asked.

As a reflex, Fayba put up her hand. Usually she loved to go first and always volunteered. She loved getting the presentation over and done with but she didn't want to go first with this project, her mind decided but apparently her arm did not get the message.

"Fayba, thank you for volunteering," Madame Torrible said, smiling at her.

Fayba became more nervous than she has her entire life. She didn't get stage fright. 'You have to get over it because everyone expects us to be perfect' Glinda told her when she was four years old. Of course that didn't help her get over it, what did was the thousands of parties she was made to go to and made to say a speech, by her mother of course. Therefore, Fayba never had stage fright anymore but she was nervous about how people were going to react when she finished her presentation. There were two ways on how this could go, they would throw rocks at her until the evil spirit left her body or they would throw rocks at her until the evil spirit left her body. Fayba realized that the two ways were the same thing and that made her even more nervous. _It's now or never._ Fayba said as she went up to the front of the class. A big part of her was telling her to choose never but the responsible part of her was telling her she would fail if she chose never and Fayba always had a fear of failing.

"Whenever you're ready," Madame Torrible said, sitting at the back of the classroom, holding the marking sheet.

_And that would be never_. Fayba thought but decided to start anyways. "I decided to do my project on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Everyone knows the story about her. She was evil and did many horrible things such as giving monkeys wings, turning a person into tin, taking away a lion's courage, turning Fiyero into a scarecrow and more until Dorothy threw water on her causing her to melt. Many have wondered why someone would do these things. When I first started this project, I thought it was going to be easy to write about her motive. I thought it was either she went power mad or decide to take revenge on the people that teased her and shunned her because she was green. As I was researching the Wicked Witch of the West though, I found many things that did not make sense in this story. The Wicked Witch of the West did her first evil act at Emerald city when Glinda was deemed Good Witch of the North but that didn't make sense. Everyone assumed Elphaba was a loner at Shiz and that was the reason why she went after my mother but I found out that Elphaba did have a friend, a best friend in fact," Fayba paused. She knew the next thing was going to shock everyone but she wasn't going to stop now. "Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West were BFFs." Fayba looked around her and saw shocked faces except for two, Jasmine and Lance. That confused Fayba a bit. She expected Jasmine to not be shock, since she knew but not Lance. "I can prove it because Shiz's library has Elphaba's yearbook and my mother signed it 'your BFF, Glinda.'

"When I saw that, I knew the motive of Elphaba taking revenge on everyone that teased her couldn't be right because my mother and she were friends but Elphaba still hurt her. Glinda signed the yearbook on the way to Emerald city. It says in the story that Glinda went to Emerald city, and was deemed the Good Witch of the North but I read what Elphaba wrote in my mother's yearbook and she said that the Wizard wanted to see her and she invited Glinda to come along. It could be a lie but the signing was done on the train to Emerald city and it seems that Elphaba and Glinda were still friends at that point.

"People say that she went power mad and cursed innocent monkeys with wings the day that Glinda was deemed Good Witch of the North but why would she have taken it out on monkeys? Not only would it make more sense if she went after Glinda instead of the monkeys but Elphaba was an animal rights activist. She wouldn't hurt an animal, well not on purpose. Also, the spell that cause monkeys to have wings was in a spell book that belonged to the Wizard. The same Wizard that took off and decided to never come back. I don't think Elphaba just found the book and flipped it to a random page and by coincidence that the Wiz had a bunch of monkeys captured. The Wizard wanted to see Elphaba not Glinda that day. Something must have happened besides just Glinda being deemed the Good Witch of the North. And even if that was the plan, why would Elphaba be mad? She was best friends with Glinda. Elphaba would be happy for her and also see this as a plus because having a best friend in that power would help get animal rights. I don't think she would have been angry. Not only that but why was Glinda deemed privately? Wouldn't something like that be a public event?

"As many wonder then what could possibly have caused Elphaba to be evil, we have to think who told us she was evil. The Wizard's second in command, Madame Morrible, the woman who is now spending the rest of her days in a jail told us. If Madame Morrible is evil and told us Elphaba was evil, could there be a possibility that she was lying? And if the Wizard's second in command is evil, who's to say the Wizard wasn't evil. There are only a handful of people who were alive during that time that saw the Wizard's face. Everyone else just saw a mechanical face that he could hide behind until the day he left.

"I think Elphaba became a target because she ran off with the spell book. Why else would the Wizard care about catching Elphaba? He didn't seem to care about Oz. If he did then why did he leave?

"Many pieces of the story do not make sense. Take Dorothy for example. Everyone said that she was a witch because how else could she have gotten here but she said that there was a hurricane that brought her to the land of Oz. Madame Morrible's speciality was controlling the weather. Dorothy's house dropped on the Nessa, the Wicked Witch of the East, Elphaba's sister. Supposedly, Elphaba came to get Nessa's shoes because they had power but I don't think the shoes had any real power except helping Nessa walk. They didn't even take Dorothy home, my mother did. They had no doom and gloom power. I think the only reason Elphaba wanted those shoes was because they belonged to her sister. She was just a grieving sister.

"I know that I am completely going all over the place but this story doesn't go together properly. I think that Elphaba was just misunderstood, she had no evil motive and I'm not even sure if she did all the things that people say like changing a man into tin, changing Fiyero into a scarecrow and taking away a lion's courage. There are too many questions that all lead back to what happened at Emerald city that day. Someone is lying and I intend to find out who." Fayba stopped talking and looked at her classmates and Madame Torrible.

Everyone looked shocked, including Lance and Jasmine. No one said anything, not knowing what to do. Then Lance started clapping and was followed by everyone in the class. Fayba walked back to her seat beside Lance, taking in deep breaths. She wasn't expecting anyone to clap.

"Well Fayba you certainly did a lot of research. I look forward in reading your essay, now who's next?" Madame Torrible asked and another student put up his hand.

"That was really good," Lance whispered. "How'd you find out about all that stuff?"

"Library," Fayba said before turning toward the student starting his presentation.

By the time lunch rolled around, everyone knew about Fayba's presentation and everyone was talking about it. A few were saying that it was a rumour while others talked about the possibility that Fayba is one of the Wicked Witch of the West's follows and others talked about the questions that Fayba brought up. It wasn't only students but teachers who were talking about it. When Fayba sat down at her lunch table, everyone crowded around her like usual but this time instead of talking about the upcoming dance, everyone was talking about the questions Fayba brought up. Everyone was asking her questions from why Elphaba was green to what happened to Fiyero. There were even a few that were giving their own theories, which helped Fayba. Talking about it with other people helped her mind think of her own theories. Fayba was listening to someone's theory when Madame Torrible came up to the table.

"Fayba, please accompany me to my office," she said. Fayba stood up immediately and followed Madame Torrible thinking this was it, here comes the rock throwing. As they walked through the cafeteria, Fayba's eyes contacted with Lance's for a split second before she walked through the doors. Madame Torrible was silent all the way to the office. Once they got to their destination, Madame Torrible stepped in the office and Fayba followed shock to see who was waiting in the office.

"Pete? What are you doing here?" Fayba asked.

Pete looked at the ground. "It's about your mother, she's dying."

Reviews are always welcome!


	7. The Truth That so Many Tried to Hide

disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters that I made up.

Chapter 7: The Truth That so Many Tried to Hide

Fayba looked out the window of the carriage the whole trip. She thought it was funny how a person could be happy one minute then in a split second, that happiness is ripped away and agonizing pain fills the empty space. This was how she felt when Pete said those two words 'she's dying.' Those words repeated in her head over and over again. 'She's dying,' 'she's dying.' After that, everything was sort of a blur in Fayba's memory that she tried desperately to remember.

"_We were hoping that it was just a bug… but it turns out that it's the curse," Pete said, trying to explain it the best he could to Fayba as well as comfort her. Fayba didn't say anything_, _she just slid down the wall to the ground. She was so shocked that she didn't even realize that she was crying until she felt a tear run down her cheek. Pete grabbed her hand, trying to comfort her but nothing could make her feel better. She had never felt this way. Even when her father died, she still at least had her mother, comforting her, telling her that she would never leave. Now, now, she had nothing. She had no parent to comfort her, only a monkey. She looked at Madame Torrible who was staring at the floor as if she just wanted to melt through it and be anywhere else that wasn't here._

"_How long… how long have you known?" Fayba finally choked out._

"_Not very long," Pete said in a reassuring voice._

"_How long!" Fayba demanded. "Did you know when I called two days ago?" she asked looking at Pete. He immediately looked down, ashamed to meet her eyes._

"_Yes," he whispered._

"_Why didn't you tell me? I had a right to know!" she said, getting angrier by the minute. She had so many emotions running through her body. Anger at Pete for keeping something so important from her, anger at herself for thinking about her project instead of pushing Pete to tell her what was wrong. She felt guilty for going to Shiz and only saying that she should stay home as a joke. Feeling sadness that her mother was going to die. Every shred of happiness she felt at one time was gone. She couldn't even remember what happiness felt like. Fayba looked at Pete waiting for his excuse to why he didn't tell her._

"_I didn't want to worry you," he said, still looking at the ground._

"_Well you should have," Fayba said, ripping her hand out of Pete's grasp. "You should have told me the second you knew! The curse is deadly!" Fayba whispered the last part. She wasn't over exaggerating. The curse was the most deadly thing in Oz. No one knew where it came from, when it would come, how someone got it, or if someone would get it. The only thing that everyone knew is if someone gets the curse, it would be only a matter of time before they die. No one has a chance of surviving the curse. Not even Glinda the Good Witch of the North._

"_Fayba, I…" Pete couldn't even finish the sentence. He knew from the second he found out it was the curse that whatever decision he made, someone would think that it was the wrong one. He turned to Madame Torrible, hoping that she would say something._

"_Fayba, Pete came to take you home to be with your mother. You should go and pack up. Don't worry about your classes, all your teachers will be notified and you won't lose marks. If there is anything else I can do please let me know," Madame Torrible said to the wall above Fayba's head, too afraid to look in her eyes. _

_Fayba nodded, stood up, and wiped the tears off her face. "I'll go pack and I'll meet you at the entrance in a couple minutes," she said, leaving the office. Once outside, she noticed that Jasmine, Conlan, and Lance were waiting for her. All of them looking concerned._

"_What happened?" Jasmine asked but Fayba didn't seem to hear her. She just walked towards the dorm rooms. Everyone followed her, wanting to know what was wrong. "What happened?" Jasmine repeated, running to keep up with Fayba's fast walk. _

_Fayba reached her dorm room and started fiddling with the lock. She couldn't seem to get her key into the lock because her vision was blurred by her tears. She felt someone grab the key from her hand and opened the door for her. She looked up, seeing Lance handing the key back to her. Fayba took it and walked into the room, snatching a suitcase and placing it on her bed. She opened the suitcase, started grabbing her clothes, and shoved them into it. She knew she couldn't use magic when she was upset. She would end up getting ducks when she wanted flowers. _

"_Where are you going!" Jasmine demanded, getting frustrated that Fayba wasn't talking to her._

"_Home," Fayba said without looking up. She zipped up the suitcase and was going to grab another one but Conlan handed one to her. He tried looking into Fayba's eyes to analyze her actions to understand her but he was only good at analyzing potions and numbers, not people. _

"_Home? Why? Fayba what's wrong?" Jasmine said, panicking because her best friend was leaving. Had they kicked her out because of her presentation? If that was the case, Jasmine planned to fight for Fayba to stay._

"_My mom has the curse," Fayba said zipping up the second bag and walking out of the room. Jasmine didn't follow her, she stood there, desperately trying to hold back the tears. What she said devastated her. She was soon unable to control her tears and they started pouring down her face as she covered her mouth to muffle her sob. Lance ran after Fayba and Conlan stayed behind with Jasmine, catching her when she dropped to the ground._

"_Fayba, I'm so sorry," Lance said, running up to her. Fayba just quickly walked to the front entrance of Shiz. Lance opened the door for her and she walked outside without even noticing that Lance was trying to talk to her. She handed her suitcases to the servant that worked at her home. Her home. She never called it that before. It was always the castle or the prison but now she realized that home was anywhere her mother was. Pete went inside the carriage, expecting Fayba to follow. She was about to climb in but Lance caught her arm. "Is there anything I can do?" Lance asked, feeling a bit powerless._

_Fayba looked at him for a second then nodded. "Don't tell anyone, please. Can't have more people pity me, and make sure you tell Jasmine and Conlan too," Fayba said. She climbed into the carriage before Lance could reply and then the carriage started to move, leaving Lance outside the school by himself._

Fayba jumped out of her thoughts when she saw the gates to the castle. She sat up, looking at her home coming closer to her. Part of her wanted to hurdle out of the carriage and run away but another part of her wanted to run towards the castle. When they reached the front of the castle, Fayba didn't wait for a servant to open the door. She just jumped out and ran inside the castle. Pete chased after her, hoping to catch her before she reached Glinda's bedroom.

"Fayba wait!" Pete called.

Fayba didn't slow down though. 'She's dying,' 'she's dying,' she thought as she ran faster until she reached her mother's room. She stopped right in front of the closed bedroom door. She couldn't open it. She was too scared to. She didn't know what she was suppose to say to her mother. What does someone say to a dying person?

"How. Did. You. Learn. To. Run. Like. That?" Pete panted once he reached Fayba.

"What do I say to her?" Fayba asked.

"Tell her that you love her," Pete suggested still a bit panting. "But you must remember that the curse makes a person very tired so she might be sleeping," Pete continued. Fayba nodded and opened the door.

She walked in and saw her mother lying down on the bed with many quilts on her. The curse made a person feel very cold. Glinda turned her head to see who walked into the room, seeing Fayba and Pete she immediately smiled.

"I thought I told you to stay at Shiz," Glinda said, making Fayba smile. She walked to the bed and knelt down beside it.

"What can I say, I told you it was a bad idea," Fayba joked.

Glinda laughed a bit but the laugh turned into a cough. She grabbed her handkerchief and coughed uncontrollably into it. Fayba pulled back, feeling the tears in her eyes. Once Glinda stopped coughing, she turned to Fayba.

"Oh darling, don't cry. This was why I didn't want Pete to tell you. I didn't want to stress you out," Glinda said, holding Fayba's hand.

"I'm sorry mom, I just… I can't lose you," Fayba said, once again unable to control her tears.

Glinda nodded. "I know. I don't want to go," she said, "but I am going to die soon and there is something I have to tell you," she continued. She looked at Pete and he knew exactly what she was going to say. Glinda smiled. "It's time to tell her," she said trying to calm Pete's nerves. Pete nodded and Glinda looked at Fayba. "I heard that you did a project on Elphaba and you said some things don't make sense."

Fayba nodded. "I just did the presentation today but it doesn't matter."

Glinda shook her head. "It does matter. You have to know the truth if you are going to be the leader of Oz when I leave." Fayba looked like she was going to say something but Glinda continued, not giving her the chance to speak. "Elphaba and I were best friends at Shiz. One day, Madame Morrible said that the Wizard wanted to see Elphaba because of how powerful she was. Elphie, as I called her, invited me to come along and of course, I said yes, everyone wanted to see the Wizard, we all thought he was magnificent. When we got there though, we meet the Wizard, and find out his second in command is Madame Morrible. She hands Elphie a spell book and told her to read a spell to see if Elphie could do it. Elphie could read it with such ease that it was shocking because Madame Morrible said she could only read and master some of the spells in the book and she spent all her life studying it. When Elphie finished reading, she finds out the spell that she cast gave monkeys wings. The Wizard and Madame Morrible were doing all these horrible things to the animals, Elphie was mortified and ran off with the book, and I chased after her.

"The Wizard and Madame Morrible wanted Elphie captured because she took the book and she knew too much. Madame Morrible said that Elphie was wicked and was the reason why the monkeys grew wings. Elphie chose to fight back, fight for animal rights and asked me to fight with her but I was too scared and I stayed behind. The Wizard deemed me the Good Witch of the North so I would keep quiet. You have to understand Fayba that I was a weak, shallow, and a coward back then, thinking that people liking me was more important than helping my best friend.

"Things just escalated from there. Everyone in Oz was looking for Elphaba, wanting to please the Wizard. On my engagement party to Fiyero at Emerald city, well more like me proposing to Fiyero, I kind of just surprised him with the party, telling him that we were getting married," Glinda laughed a bit, thinking about it, "Elphie came back to Emerald city to release the monkeys that were still in cages. The Wiz caught her though when she was leaving and called on the guards. Fiyero was head of the guards at that time; again, I kind of roped him into it. Instead of catching her though, Fiyero decided to go with her and leave me. They loved each other and I was only in their way.

"After that, Madame Morrible and the Wiz thought of a plan to capture Elphie. I thought they were just going to spread a rumour that Nessa was sick but they decided to kill her instead by Dorothy's house. As expected, Elphie came to Nessa's body when there was no one around but me. When I saw her, I was still so angry with her for taking Fiyero away that we started fighting. We were attacking each other when the guards came to capture her. Fiyero though came to rescue her and he was turned into a scarecrow.

"Elphie then went bonkers. She decided to let everyone think she was wicked instead of fighting it. She didn't do most of the things she was accused of, you know. The cowardly lion was treated horribly when he was younger and Elphie sent him free but he blamed her for not having courage. The tin man's name was Boq and Nessa loved him but when Elphie cast a spell on the shoes to help Nessa walk, he wanted to leave her and she got angry. Nessa grabbed the spell book and read a spell so that she could have Boq's heart. The spell took it literally though and it was going to rip out his heart, causing him to die. Elphie saved him but accidentally turned him into tin in the process.

"I think the only thing that Elphie did that was bad was capturing Dorothy. She wanted Nessa's shoes but not for the power, those shoes had no real power. She wanted the shoes because they belonged to her sister. I confronted Elphie, begging her to let Dorothy go because that poor girl was so scared. I told her that it wasn't worth it and then one of the monkeys handed her a note saying Fiyero was dead. She decided to give up, gave me the spell book because it had good spells in there too. She told me not to try to clear her name because everyone would turn on me. She then let Dorothy throw the water on her. I was in the next room and I heard it all.

"I decided then that I needed to fix Oz, for Elphie. I sent Madame Morrible to jail and told the Wiz to leave and never come back. It was only at the celebration when I saw Fiyero saying goodbye to Dorothy that I knew Elphie made a horrible mistake. I was going to talk to Fiyero after the celebration but I never got the chance. He disappeared and I think he killed himself. He loved Elphie with all of his heart.

"I think about Elphie everyday. I told you when you were younger that I made up your name because I wanted you to be unique but the truth is I named you after Elphaba. See you take out the 'y,' change the 'F' to a 'ph,' and add an 'El' and you get Elphaba. Simple isn't it? Well not really but if I made it too obvious then I would be accused of being one of the Wicked Witch of the West followers." Glinda stopped talking and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but it had to be a secret, very few know the whole story as it is."

"Mom," Fayba said softly, still trying to wrap her head around the information that Glinda gave her. "Are you sure that Elphaba died. I mean having water thrown on her seems like a weird way to die."

"Yes she died," Glinda said, still with her eyes closed.

"Fayba, we should go and let your mother rest," Pete whispered.

Fayba nodded, squeezed Glinda's hand one last time and left the room, with Pete following. Once they were outside, Nancy immediately started talking. She had been waiting outside the room to talk to Fayba.

"I know that it's later than usual but there's food ready for you Fayba."

"I'm not hungry," Fayba said, staring at Glinda's closed door, wanting desperately to wake up from the nightmare that was her life.

"You should eat something, I'll keep you company," Pete said. Fayba looked at him strangely. Pete never liked the dinning room table. He said the chairs were too big, table too long and there was always too much food. He only sat at the dinning room table on special occasions. Before she could say anything, Pete grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the dinning room. He led her to the seat that she always sat in. Once he let go of her hand and walked away to sit across from her, she realized that he passed her a note. It said 'flying food tastes bad cold.' Fayba smiled. It was the code language that she made up when she was a kid. She taught it to Pete so they could talk to each other in code. The hadn't used the code for years but Fayba still knew what it meant. Pete wanted to talk to her after dinner. Fayba nodded and put the note in her water, destroying all evidence.

After dinner, Fayba followed Pet upstairs. He led her to the tower that was only used to set up fireworks for special events. Her head was still spinning, still thinking what her mother told her about Elphaba. Never in a million years would she have expected the story to end like that, but then again, she never expected her mother to have the curse either. So many things made sense in the story now except for Fiyero's disappearance and Elphaba dying by a bucket of water.

Once they reached the tower, Pete opened the door to the tower room, letting Fayba walk in first and shutting the door after he stepped in. He looked around the room, making sure no one was in there as Fayba sat down on a seat that was left up there. Once he was confident that no one could hear him, he turned to Fayba. "What I'm about to tell you can never leave this room. Out of all the people that know the true Elphaba story, there is even less that know this part of the story. Your mother doesn't even know and you can't tell her," Pete said as Fayba nodded, pushing him to continue. "I was there, the day that Dorothy threw the water on Elphaba," he said pausing, not knowing what to say next.

"Okay," Fayba said slowly, a bit confused as to where this was going.

"You were right, dying by having water thrown on you is a weird way to go." Pete sighed; he knew he couldn't beat around the bush any longer. "Elphaba didn't die, there was a plan."

"What!" Fayba shouted jumping up.

"Shhhhhhhh! Someone might hear you!" Pete whispered harshly. Fayba sat back down so that Pete could continue. "The plan was for Dorothy to throw water on her and she would fall through a trapped door, looking like she melted. Fiyero would then meet her after the celebration of her death so he would get a 'brain' and not cause to much suspicion. We were going to do it right when Dorothy was captured but Elphaba wanted to wait for your mom and she knew she would come. She thought Elphaba went bonkers. Elphaba wanted to make amends and give your mom the spell book. Once she did, it was show time for Elphaba's supposed death. Your mother believed Elphaba died and so did everyone else in Oz. Most of the monkeys followed Elphaba but I stayed behind. Elphaba instructed me to stay and protect Glinda but to never tell her that she was still alive."

"Why are you telling me this?" Fayba asked. "What good is it for me to know that Elphaba is still alive?" Fayba continued. As much as she liked to know the full story, she would rather just be with her mother. Pete could have told her after Glinda's death if he felt he really needed to.

"I'm telling you this because there was a person who had the curse but survived it. She was taken off the count because everyone assumed that it couldn't have been the curse but it was. Elphaba cured her." Fayba stared at Pete in complete shock. This had been one eventful day. To think that when she woke up, she was nervous about a project, now she had hope that her mother may survive the curse.

"Elphaba cured her? How?"

"I don't know."

"Well, where is Elphaba?"

"I don't know," Pete repeated. "She never told me where she was going, thought it was safer that way."

"Well what do you know?" Fayba said, standing up and began to pace. She was getting frustrated that her hope for her mother surviving was slipping away.

"Elphaba can't be anywhere in Oz because she would be caught if she was."

"Do you know who the person that was cured, maybe she knows something."

Pete pondered it for a second, trying to remember the name. "Her name is Miss Libree but I don't know where to find her, all I know is that she probably has Elphaba's yearbook since she said she lost it at her house." Fayba stopped pacing and stared at him for a second. Who knew there was so many twists and turns in this story.

"What?" he questioned, wondering why Fayba looked like she knew something he didn't.

"I need to go back to Shiz," she said running out of the room.

"What?" he called, chasing her for the second time today.

"And you have to help me," she said, stopping on the stairs, pointing her finger in his face.

"What!" he yelled confused and frustrated.

"I need to find Elphaba and the Shiz library will help me find her as well as the librarian. I have to find her to save mom. You have to insist to send me back to Shiz when I ask and-"

"Fayba, it's a long shot to even find Elphaba much less before your mother dies. She can go any day. You should just stay here and spend the time you have left with her."

"I can't just sit here and wait till she dies, knowing that there is a chance to save her. I have to at least try. So I am going to go out there and grab my suitcases that I haven't unpacked and go outside the castle. You are going to get the carriage ready so that by the time I walk outside, the carriage and the driver will be ready to leave. The excuse will be that I can't stand seeing my mother in pain. When I leave, you will phone Madame Torrible and tell her to expect me late at night. Ready, break," Fayba said, clapping her hands together and walking out of the tower and into the hallway.

"Hey! I didn't agree to this!" Pete shouted as he followed Fayba.

"Agree to what?" Nancy asked. Pete looked at Fayba, not knowing what to say.

"I'm going back to Shiz because I can't see my mom in pain. Pete agrees with me but he doesn't think I should go tonight but tomorrow but I have to leave now." Pete looked at Fayba, completely shocked. She was such a good liar, which made him wonder what else she has lied about.

"But Fayba, don't you want to spend the time you have left with your mother before she goes," Nancy said, shocked that Fayba would even think about leaving.

"I can't be here. I'm sorry. Pete can you get the carriage ready please," Fayba said. Pete was about to say something but Fayba put up her hand. "I need to go tonight," she said then walked away, still putting on a show for Nancy. Nancy stood there in shock. She turned to Pete and he shrugged his shoulders, walking away to get the carriage ready.

Fayba ran out of the castle, afraid that if she waited too long, Nancy would stop her or worse, her mother. She didn't want to talk to her mother, she was scared that she would forget the reason why she was leaving and stay at her mother's side. 'I'm not abandoning her' Fayba repeated over and over in her head, hoping that soon she would believe it. When she walked outside, she saw the carriage, a driver ready to leave and Pete waiting for her. A servant took her suitcases and Fayba went into the carriage.

"Thank you Pete," she said as he shut the door.

"Don't worry about it, just find Elphaba," he whispered.

Fayba nodded, as the carriage started moving. Pete waited until the carriage disappeared through the gates before he went to call Madame Torrible. He thought about the last time he was standing there, watching the carriage that was bringing Fayba to Shiz. Back then, he had hope that Glinda didn't have the curse. Now he had to hope that Fayba would find Elphaba.

It was late at night when Fayba finally reached Shiz. Madame Torrible was waiting outside the school for her. Fayba grabbed her suitcases and followed Madame Torrible inside.

"I don't understand why you are here, your monkey friend tried to explain it when he called but I still didn't understand. Anyways, it doesn't matter, you're hurting and that doesn't always make sense. I'm giving you the day off tomorrow. Don't go to any of your classes, stay in your dorm room or go to a place that you love, just don't go to class," Madame Torrible said as they reached Fayba's dorm room.

"Thank you Madame Torrible," she said, opening her door. Madame Torrible nodded and walked away, leaving Fayba alone with her thoughts.

I dream of a place. It's a wonderful place. You can get there by pressing the review button. Come on you know you wanna review. Reviews are always welcome!


	8. How to Save a Life

disclaimer: I own nothing, (not even the chapter title this time) but the characters I made up. Blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 8: How to Save a Life

Jasmine woke up with a slight headache. She stayed in her dorm room, crying the day before. Glinda was her role model, she idolized her and now she was dying. Conlan stayed by her side the rest of the day too, which was very sweet of him. She knew how much it bothered Conlan to miss a class. He would even come to classes when he was deathly ill but here he was, putting Jasmine first and she wondered why. They knew each other since they started school but they weren't really that great of friends, they were barely acquaintances. Jasmine liked it though. She wondered if she was developing feelings for him but she didn't give it much thought since all she could think about was Glinda dying.

She sat up and turned, seeing Fayba grabbing her notebook to put in her bag. Jasmine screamed, causing Fayba to jump. She couldn't understand. _Was yesterday just a dream?_ Jasmine wondered or maybe she was just dreaming now. She pinched herself, which didn't prove anything, only causing a red mark on her arm.

"Gosh Jasmine, I think you woke up the entire girl section of the dorm rooms," Fayba said, picking up her notebook that she dropped when Jasmine screamed and shoved it in her bag.

"What are you doing here?" Jasmine questioned, getting out of her bed.

"Uh, this is my dorm room," Fayba said in a 'duh' tone.

"But you left to go home because your mom has the curse," Jasmine said, hoping that Fayba would laugh and ask her what she was talking about to prove that it was just a dream. Instead, Fayba closed her eyes for a second, trying to hold back the tears. "It wasn't a dream was it?" Jasmine asked and Fayba shook her head. "Oh Fayba," she said, pulling her into a hug. "I'm so, so sorry." Fayba nodded and wiped her tears off her cheeks. Once they pulled apart, Fayba grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Where are you going? Why are you here anyways?"

"I need to do something," Fayba said.

"What could possibly be more important than being with your mother when she is dying?"

"I can't tell you right now. I just need to go to the library." Jasmine blocked the door when Fayba tried to leave.

"You think that finding the truth about the Wicked Witch of the West story is more important that your mother? I don't understand!" Jasmine said, getting angrier by the second. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. This wasn't like Fayba.

Fayba sighed. "I can't explain this to you right now. I promised not to tell anyone. I need to go talk to Miss Libree right now okay. I promise everything will make sense in time. Just trust me," Fayba pleaded. Jasmine hesitated for a second but then nodded and moved aside to let her pass.

Fayba ran out of the room and towards the library. She knew Miss Libree wouldn't open the library before school since Fayba's project was due yesterday, but she knew that Miss Libree loved the library and practically lived there.

"Miss Libree!" Fayba called, banging on the door with her fist. "Miss Libree!" she continued to call until she saw Miss Libree open the door.

"Fayba what are you doing here? Wasn't your essay due yesterday?" she asked as Fayba stepped in.

"No one else is here, right?"

"Please. It's early in the morning and this is the library. Not exactly the cool place to hang out," Miss Libree said, using air quotations with her fingers when she said hang out. "No one is here," she reassured.

"Right," Fayba said as Miss Libree closed the door.

"What's wrong?" Miss Libree asked.

"My mom is dying," Fayba said so bluntly that Miss Libree had to hang onto the front desk so she wouldn't fall. "She has the curse," Fayba continued, not letting Miss Libree recover from the shock and pity her. She didn't need or want her pity, she got enough of that with everyone else.

"I need your help. I know the whole story about Elphaba and I know you do too. I always suspected you were holding something back when I asked you a question about the project and now I know why."

Miss Libree looked down at her feet. "I don't know what you are talking about," she mumbled as walked to a trolley full of books and started pulling it to the bookshelves. Fayba followed her. She knew she had to get Miss Libree to admit what she knew.

"I know Elphaba came to you when you had the curse and she cured you."

"I never had the curse. If I did, I'd be dead," she said as she put a few books away.

"Stop lying! Elphaba didn't lose her yearbook somewhere, she left it at your house. Please Miss Libree, stop lying and help me. My mom doesn't have much time left." Miss Libree looked at the ground, afraid to make eye contact with Fayba.

"I promised her that I would never tell anyone that she cured me," she muttered, still looking at the ground.

"Please Miss Libree, Pete has already told me the full story."

Miss Libree looked at Fayba, debating whether she should break her promise or not. "What do you need help in?" she finally asked.

"Do you know where Elphaba is? I need to find her to save my mother," Fayba said, praying that the answer was yes.

Miss Libree shook her head. "She cured me before she supposedly died. She told me not to tell anyone that she cured me because she wanted people to think she was wicked. She had given up fighting it once they took Fiyero and turned him into a scarecrow. When I heard that she melted because water was thrown on her and Fiyero disappeared, I knew that they had left Oz to start over."

"Do you have any idea to where they would have gone? Maybe they went to Dorothy's world," Fayba suggested and Miss Libree shook her head.

"That world has no power, the Wiz just faked having powers and Glinda and the red shoes made it seem like Dorothy had power. If people in Oz didn't accept Elphaba for being green, I doubt anyone in Dorothy's world would accept her." Fayba nodded, trying to think where Elphaba could be.

"So they would have to be just outside of Oz," Fayba thought aloud.

"That's right!" Miss Libree said, getting excited. "The library has a map of Oz that shows the surroundings of it too. It's in the restricted section," Miss Libree continued as she walked quickly to the restricted section, making Fayba run to keep up. Miss Libree pulled out a giant map and almost fell over but Fayba caught the other side, allowing Miss Libree to regain her balance. They carried it to the front of the library and rolled it out across the floor.

"Wait a second," Miss Libree said as she ran behind the front desk and grabbed a sign. Fayba read it before she put it on the door. It said, 'sorry, the library is closed, please come back later.' Miss Libree turned around, seeing Fayba give her a strange look. "I put it on when I have to go to the washroom or when I'm reading a really good part in a book and I don't want to be disturbed. We can't have anyone interrupt us and find out we are looking for an evil witch that is suppose to be dead." Fayba nodded and looked down at the map. She pulled out her notebook and a pen from her bag.

"Okay this is what we can do. We are searching for a place that Elphaba would never be discovered but has enough food, water and shelter. What we can do is list all of the places outside of Oz that she could be and read books about the land. We can rule them out one by one if there is even a slight chance that she could be found or if the survival is low. Okay?" Fayba asked, not knowing how far Miss Libree was willing to help.

"Alright, let's get started," Miss Libree said. Fayba smiled as they each called out places where she could be.

Fayba and Miss Libree worked harder and faster than they ever have in their entire life. They only put a book down for more than three seconds when they had to go to the washroom. They searched even when they were eating, but of course being careful to not spill anything on the books or else Miss Libree would have a panic attack.

Fayba was growing more and more impatient and frustrated by the second. It was an endless circle. Read a book, look at a closer up map on that land, and rule it out. She hated how every second that past was a second closer to her mother's soon death. That was if her mother was still alive. Fayba shook her head, she knew she had to stop thinking like that, or it would drive her crazy, plus she knew Pete would call if her mother died. Fayba got up, still carrying a book and decided to read and walk to stretch her legs. She was on her second last page of the book when she heard someone jiggle the library door. Fayba turned to Miss Libree, seeing if she heard it too. Miss Libree looked at Fayba, placing her finger on her lips, telling Fayba to be quiet; hoping that whoever was out there would go away. Then there was a knock. Obviously, the person couldn't read a sign.

"Fayba? Fayba are you in there? Jasmine told me that you're back and was in here." Fayba sighed, it was Lance. "Look I know you probably asked Miss Libree to put up this sign so you wouldn't be bothered while you grieve but I want to talk to you. You don't have to let me in or anything, you can just listen. I'm sorry about your mother dying and I'm sorry when I said people pity you because your dad died. It's not true. I was just stupid and thinking in the heat of the moment. I believe that you are a very strong person after losing your father at such a young age and now having to go through this. No one pities a strong person, they envy them. Everyone envies you and you should be very proud of that. I think though, you should go back home and be with your mother. I think being together will give you both strength. Anyways, that's all I had to say. See you around Fayba," Lance said and Fayba could see Lance's shadow fade away. She ran to the door and slightly opened it.

"Lance," she called and he turned around, only seeing her head stick through the door.

"Ya?" he asked.

"Thanks," she said and he smiled a normal smile for once instead of his usual evil smirk, which delighted Fayba.

"It was my pleasure," he said, bowing, making her laugh. "See you around?" he asked once he stood up.

Fayba nodded. "See you around," she confirmed as she shut the door. Fayba then leaned on the closed door, smiling and looking into space, forgetting everything around her but Lance.

"You like him," Miss Libree said, bringing Fayba back to reality.

"I do not, we're just friends," Fayba replied, picking up her book to finish reading it.

"Uh-huh, just friends. Now where have I heard that before? Ah yes, Elphaba said that to me about Fiyero," Miss Libree said, looking back at her book.

---

It was almost curfew and both Miss Libree and Fayba were exhausted. They didn't want to read anymore, no matter how much they loved books. Miss Libree had her head down, taking a break for a couple minutes but Fayba refused to. Her mother needed her and she wasn't going to give up. She was reading a sentence when she noticed it. She jumped out of her seat, which made Miss Libree pop her head up.

"I got it! I got it!" she said excitedly, continuing to jump up and down. Fayba ran to the restricted section, grabbing the map that she needed. Fayba was allowed to go to the restricted section by herself since Miss Libree knew she wouldn't steal anything. She ran back to Miss Libree once she had the map. "Look," Fayba said, opening the map on top of one of the tables and pulled Miss Libree to look at it.

"Robber's Forest?" she asked looking at the map.

"Yes it's the perfect hiding place. It starts after the Great Gillikin Forest. No one goes there because the talking trees don't like anyone crossing their paths. The only people who go there are criminals and even they only go there as a last resort and look, there's a castle in the middle of it," Fayba said excitedly pointing at it.

"Fayba, people call that the castle of no return and the forest of death. They say ghosts live at the castle and evil spirits surround the forest. No sane person would go there."

"This is why it is the perfect place to hide. Who would risk their life to go through Robber's forest, no one would. Besides I doubt all the rumours are true because look at the Wicked Witch of the West story."

"Some of the rumours have to be true, look what happened to your father… oh, Fayba I'm sorry. Me and my big mouth," Miss Libree said, seeing the pain in Fayba's eyes.

"It's fine, can't think of the past, we have to think of the present and I have to get to that castle. I can go on a train to the village in Great Gillikin Forest, get off at the last stop. Then I can travel on foot the rest of the way," Fayba said, saying the last part more to herself than to Miss Libree.

"Fayba, you can't go, not only is it very dangerous, but the entire Oz squad will be looking for you once someone realizes you're gone," Miss Libree said, trying to talk some sense into Fayba.

"You can help me and so can Jasmine. Please Miss Libree, I need to save my mother, what will I do without her?"

Miss Libree sighed. "Fine. I'll help you. It's late but I know a conductor at the train station. He can tell us if there is a train going to Great Gillikin Forest Village tonight. If not, then he can tell us when the next train that leaves," Miss Libree said while going behind the desk and pulling out the bowl. She chanted something that was similar to the chant that she said only three days before to call Fayba's mother. Suddenly, Fayba heard a male voice.

"Ah, hello Betty, how are you?" The male voice said.

"Betty?" Fayba mouthed.

"Fine and dandy Harry. Listen I hate to cut short the chit chat but I need to ask you a favour," Miss Libree said.

"And here I thought you called just because you missed me," Harry chuckled.

"Of course I always miss you but here's the thing. I have a student that left her project to the last minute."

"Oh, you always have one of those at least once a week."

"Believe me, I know. Anyways, for her project she has to interview people who live in the Great Gillikin Forest Village, asking them how it feels to live so close to Robber's Forest, etc. So she needs a ride up there as soon as she can, is there anyone that is travelling there tonight?" Miss Libree asked and Fayba held her breath.

"We do, in fact that's my train. It's suppose to leave in a hour."

Miss Libree nodded. "I'll take one ticket and could you possibly-"

"Stall until she gets here," Harry finished for her. "You should know by now sis that I am the master staller," he continued.

"Yes I remember you stalling when we had to go anywhere bro," Miss Libree said while smiling. She loved taking trips down memory lane. "How much is the ticket?"

"Now you know me better than that, of course it is free; just meet me at the train station."

"Will do, see you in a bit," Miss Libree said. She then said a spell to get rid of the water, placed the bowl under the desk and looked at Fayba.

"Go to your dorm room and pack very lightly. You can't walk a long distance with heavy bags. I'll come knock on your door in a bit," Miss Libree said.

"And is there a secret knock that you will do to tell me that it's you?" Fayba asked.

"Yes it will be a knock followed by 'Fayba, it's me, Miss Libree.'"

"That's a lame secret knock," Fayba said, gathering her things.

"Well that's the best you are going to get." Fayba nodded and was about to walk out the door but wanted to take something.

"Miss Libree, I know that it's against the rules to take something that is in the restricted section but please just this once can you bend the rules and let me take the Robber's Forest map," Fayba pleaded.

Miss Libree smiled. "Are you kidding? I wouldn't let you go there without a map." Fayba smiled, folded the map and then ran out the library door.

Fayba knew she had to be careful, it was way past curfew and if she was caught and received a detention, they would notice that she was missing. Fayba made it to her dorm door and put her key in the lock as quietly as she could. She thought about when she was trying to put the key in the lock yesterday and Lance was nice enough to do it for her. She couldn't believe that it was only yesterday that it happened because it felt like a life time ago. She walked in her room as quietly as she could, hoping not to make too much sound. She knew that if she made a lot of noise, the night patrol would come banging on the door. As she walked in, a light turned on with a very annoyed Jasmine sitting in her bed.

"So are you going to explain yourself now?" she questioned, tapping her fingers against her arm.

Fayba sighed. "I can't right now but I need your help."

"Why should I help you if you don't even trust me?" Jasmine asked, still clearly annoyed.

"I need you to trust me that I will tell you in time and I need you to be my BFF right now and help me," Fayba said, sitting on Jasmine's bed. She sighed and looked at Fayba, waiting for her to continue. "I'm leaving tonight to go somewhere and I need you to tell Madame Torrible tomorrow that I am so depressed that I don't want to get out of bed and that I don't want anyone to see me at such a weak state. Can you do this for me until I come back?"

Jasmine nodded. "Of course but only if you tell me what's going on at some point before I die."

Fayba nodded and smiled. "I promise I will tell you," she said as she got off the bed and went to her school bag. She dumped all of her books onto her bed and placed the necessities in there. Her notebook, hairbrush, wand, tissues, the map, money and of course a book. She never went any where without a book. She didn't pack anything else, leaving enough room for food. Fayba finished packing and sat on her bed. She noticed that Jasmine was staring at her.

"So where exactly are you planning to go?" Jasmine asked.

"I can't-"

"Tell you," Jasmine finished. "Of course you can't but if I find out you knocked over a liquor store without me, I will be pissed."

Fayba laughed. "That's plan B and of course I would have to bring you along. Who else would help me?"

"Good," Jasmine said, laughing too and then they heard a knock on the door.

"Fayba, it's me, Miss Libree," the voice said. Fayba opened the door and let Miss Libree enter. When she stepped in, she was surprise that Fayba's roommate was awake. "Oh, hello," Miss Libree said cautiously.

"It's okay, she's gonna cover for me. In fact, if Madame Torrible insists that a teacher checks on me, you can get Miss Libree, right?" Fayba asked making sure; she wouldn't push Miss Libree over the edge. She knew Miss Libree hated to go against the rules.

"Right." Miss Libree confirmed and Jasmine nodded, making Fayba relax. "Now I got you bread, water, and some cookies. They should tied you over for a couple days," Miss Libree continued, handing Fayba a bag. Fayba took it and shoved it in her school bag. She then put it over her shoulder and looked around the room, making sure she didn't forget anything.

"Ready?" Miss Libree asked and Fayba nodded.

"Ready," she confirmed. Miss Libree opened the dorm door and Fayba walked to Jasmine, giving her a hug. "Thanks for agreeing to help me," Fayba said to her.

"No problem," Jasmine replied. Fayba nodded and followed Miss Libree out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

"We can go out the side door and walk to the train station," Miss Libree said. Fayba agreed and they quickly and quietly walked to the side door, hoping not to run into the night patrol. Once they got there, Miss Libree started to say a spell to unlock the door.

"Miss Libree no!" Fayba whispered, causing her to stop chanting. "The night patrol detects magic; we have to unlock it manually." Fayba grabbed a bobby pin from her bag. She always had extras. She fiddled with the lock until it opened.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Miss Libree asked as they stepped outside and closed the door quietly.

"Years and years of practice, now which way to the train station?" Miss Libree pointed left and they ran as fast as they could to the train station. When they reached to their destination, Miss Libree's brother waved to them.

"Here," he said, handing Fayba the ticket. "It's a good thing that you're here because I didn't know how much longer I could have stalled."

"Thanks for doing this Harry, you have no idea how important this is," Miss Libree said.

"You can thank me later, right now she has to get on the train so we can go," Harry said.

Miss Libree nodded and looked at Fayba. "Now once you get there, buy breakfast and try to eat the perishable food first, here's some money."

"I have money," Fayba said, not wanting to take more from Miss Libree.

"Take it anyway, just in case," Miss Libree said, putting the coins in Fayba's hand. Fayba hugged Miss Libree, trying to hold back the tears.

"Thank you so much," Fayba whispered.

"Don't worry about it, just find her," Miss Libree said once they pulled apart. Fayba nodded and went on the train. Harry then ran to the front and a moment later, the train started moving. Miss Libree waited until she couldn't see the train anymore before she left, heading back to Shiz, hoping that Fayba would find Elphaba.

Reviews are always welcome!


	9. A Green Hand

a/n: thanks to everyone's reviews. I really appreciate them.

disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up and the title for this chapter.

Chapter 9: A Green Hand

Fayba woke up to the sound of the train's steam engine. She had no idea how tired she felt until she sat in her seat. She barely got any sleep the night before, with arriving so late at Shiz and constantly waking up because of the stress of her mother dying. She hated having so much stress and pressure, knowing that this was the only chance to save her mother.

She became very nervous when she stepped off the train. If she were recognized by just one person, it would be all over. She would never make it to Robber's forest without a mob following her. Fayba quickly went to the market to find something to eat as Miss Libree instructed her to do so. It was early in the morning so there weren't as many people selling food as there would be if she came in the middle of the day.

"One loaf of bread please," Fayba said, keeping her head low, trying to not cause too much suspicion. The woman handed her a loaf of bread as she gave her the money. It surprised her how fast she ate the bread. She didn't know she was that hungry. Fayba walked toward Robber's Forest as fast as she could. If she could get there before anyone saw her, she would be safe. Safe. She smiled at the meaning of the word. She would never be safe until she was back at home with her mother. Many people have died while travelling in Robber's Forest so going in there wasn't the safest thing to do. Fayba didn't care though. She had to save her mother. She couldn't lose her, not now. She wasn't strong enough to lose her much less run Oz on her own.

Fayba stopped walking once she saw a sign. It said 'Entering Robber's Forest, turn back now!' She walked slowly into the forest, making sure the ground didn't open up and eat her. She looked behind her, seeing a bit of the market through the trees. She had come this far and she wasn't going to stop now. She began to take faster walks, growing confidence in every step that she took. _This isn't so bad._ She thought. She hadn't run into any criminal or any tree that wanted to kick her out. This was going good.

Fayba pulled out her map and continued walking. She assumed that if she walked straight that she would make it to the castle. Okay so reading a map wasn't her strongest skill but this seemed simple. It's not like she had the yellow brick road like Dorothy had but she had a map so she could figure it out.

She had been walking for about two hours when she heard a twig break behind her. She stopped moving and looked around. Seeing no one, she continued, assuming that it was just her mind playing tricks on her. As she continued to walk, she started paying more attention to her surroundings and she was soon certain that someone was following her. She began to pick up the pace, taking glimpses behind her every so often, hoping that the person would slip up and show themselves and she would put a spell on them, using her wand that was now in her hand. She wasn't looking at where she was going and bumped into a tree. The tree's eyes opened and stared down at her.

"Who goes there?" the tree demanded.

"I'm sorry, my mistake," Fayba said, trying to escape the tree. She walked around the tree quickly as it started to yell.

"Intruder! Intruder!" the tree screamed.

Fayba became frightened and did the only thing she could think of doing, she ran. She heard footsteps behind her, and trees shouting all around her, as she ran faster than she ever had in her entire life. She wasn't looking at the ground and didn't see a root of a tree sticking out and she tripped over it, falling to the ground. Fayba tried to pick herself up quickly, but she wasn't quick enough. She felt someone putting their hand on her shoulder and she screamed, quickly turning over to face the person who had been following her.

"Fayba don't worry, it's only me. It's only me," the person said in a reassuring voice. Fayba looked up, seeing Lance, kneeling beside her. Not really thinking, she pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her back, trying to calm her down. After a couple of seconds, Fayba finally registered what was going on and promptly pulled away.

"You scared me half to death," she said smacking him in the shoulder.

"Ouch! Why do you have to hit so hard?" Lance asked, rubbing his shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, picking herself up and brushing the fallen leaves off herself and her bag. The trees had stop shouting once they saw Fayba fall, feeling that they had accomplished their goal in scaring her.

"I should be asking you the same question," he said, also standing up.

"I asked you first," she replied.

"What are we, 5 years old?" he asked.

"Hey, I am very mature for my age and I only stoop down to the immaturity of a child when I am around you," Fayba huffed, walking away.

Lance chased after her. "You still haven't told me why you are here," he replied, walking beside her.

"You first," she said, not wanting to let Lance win at anything.

Lance sighed. "I snuck into the cafeteria last night because I was hungry and I saw Miss Libree coming in quickly and putting food and water into a bag and I was curious. So I followed her to your room then followed you two to the train station. By the way I saw her take cookies, can I have one?" he said and Fayba rolled her eyes. She reached into her bag and threw one at him. "Score!" he said, biting into the cookie. "So anyways, I sweet talked one of the ladies who worked at the train station into giving me a free ticket on the train that you went on and followed you. So what are you doing here?"

"Of course you flirted with someone. You can't go a day without flirting with the opposite sex," Fayba mumbled, getting annoyed at Lance.

"Was that a hint of jealousy in your voice that I heard?" he said smirking.

"No it wasn't!" Fayba denied, shocked at what he was accusing.

"Uh-huh. Anyways you haven't answered the question. What is the daughter of the leader of Oz doing in Robber's Forest?" he asked.

"None of your business and shouldn't you be getting back at Shiz, you left without a trace, people are going to be looking for you."

"First of all, I left a note for Conlan, telling him to cover for me and-"

"And he will do it, just like that. No questions asked?" Fayba questioned, shocked because she had to almost bribe Jasmine into helping her.

"Of course, we're best friends, and besides he owes me."

"Why does he owe you?"

"Last year when I was dating Jasmine, I found out Conlan likes her. Of course, he didn't tell me but I could see it in his eyes. So, being the nice friend that I am, I dated Jasmine the respectful time I dated every other girl, I even treated her a bit better than usual, but dumped her. Conlan was there to be the shoulder that she cried on. It brought them closer and now I have been trying to bring them closer ever since," Lance said, proud that he discovered something on his own.

"Well shouldn't you be going back to Shiz so that you can bring them closer and leave me alone," Fayba said, trying to get rid of Lance.

"You don't want me to leave," Lance said, standing in Fayba's path, making her stop.

"And why's that?" she asked looking directly into his eyes.

"Because if I leave, I might slip up and accidentally tell Madame Torrible that you're in Robber's Forest," he said.

Fayba looked at him shocked that Lance could be the cause of her failing in finding Elphaba in time. "Fine, say whatever you want," she said walking around him, hoping that he wouldn't see that she was really shaking inside. She walked faster, thinking that maybe she could find Elphaba before a search party comes looking for her.

"You need me," he called after her.

Fayba stopped walking and turned around. "Why would I need you?" she asked, not really caring what his answer was. She just wanted to find Elphaba.

"You've been travelling for almost two hours in this forest and you have created three different circles that you have walked through at least twice. I don't think you came in here to play ring around the rosy with trees that get angry when they spot an intruder. I can help you," he said. "All you have to do is tell me why you came here."

Fayba narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn't sure if she should trust him. Pete told her not to tell anyone but she was running out of time and she couldn't afford wasting any more of it. "Fine you can come. I'm trying to find the castle that is in the middle of this forest," she said, handing Lance the map.

"Why?" he asked, looking at the map, trying to figure out where they were. He looked at her when she didn't answer. She seemed very tense about telling him. "Why?" he repeated.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. No one, no matter what," Fayba said, still scared to tell him.

"Okay, I promise," he said, hinting her to move on.

"Elphaba was good not evil. Everyone was just tricked by the Wiz and Madame Morrible. Miss Libree had the curse and Elphaba cured her. She didn't die by a bucket of water. There was a plan for her to escape and leave Oz to start over. She and Fiyero loved each other and left and I believe they are living in that castle. I have to find Elphaba to save my mother." Fayba said in one breath. She stopped talking and looked at Lance. He didn't seemed fazed by what she just told him. He looked like his normal usual self, calm and relaxed. Fayba looked at him strangely. When she was told this, her head was spinning and she was anything but calm. Lance nodded and looked back at the map.

"This way to the castle," he said pointing left. He started walking but Fayba stayed where she was.

"That's it? That's all you have to say? Not you're crazy or I always knew you were one of the Wicked Witch if the West's followers," she said, running up to walk beside him.

"Why would I say that? It makes more sense that Elphaba wasn't evil, just misunderstood, like you said in your presentation. I believe you. You're here because you love your mother so much that you will risk your own life to save her's. No one could be evil and do something so good," he said, still looking at the map.

"Hey could I ask you a question, I know it's random but it's been bugging me for a while."

"You can ask, it just doesn't mean I'll answer it," he said, folding the map and putting it in his pocket.

"How come I never heard of you before I came to Shiz? I mean I remember seeing your parents at many events my mother has held but you never came to any of them. Why?"

Lance shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't want to go and my parents let me stay home."

"Really?" Fayba said, surprised at the answer. "My mom made me sit through a twelve course meal once when I had the flu and my face was paler than my white dress."

"Well I guess my parents thought parties weren't meant for me." He said, still walking.

"I guess," Fayba said. "Hey, could I ask you another question?"

"Sure."

"What do you plan to say to your brother when you see him?"

"Who?" Lance asked, confused at the question.

"You know, Fiyero."

"Oh well, I'm not sure what I'm going to say to him. Never thought about it before. Up to a minute ago, I thought he was dead. What do you plan to say to Elphaba?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"I plan to tell her the reason why I'm here and then beg her to save my mother. I will tell her that we can go in the night so that she wouldn't be discovered and then she can go back home and not to worry because her secret will be safe with me." Lance nodded and neither of them said anything else for a while, both just focusing on getting to the castle.

They had been walking for most of the day and they still didn't arrive at the castle. It was sundown and Fayba was getting worried about not being able to find the castle before nightfall. Lance was staring at the map as they continued to walk.

"We're lost," Fayba groaned. "Why did I bring you along again? Oh ya, so that I wouldn't travel in a circle but I swear that we past that tree at least twice," Fayba continued to complain.

"We are not lost. We just don't know if we are going in the right direction," Lance reassured.

"Uh that's the definition of being lost," Fayba replied.

"Just give me a second to look at the map," Lance said, sitting down on a tree stump. "Okay, we are here, we just have to keep going straight and not turn right, I think," he said, scratching his head. He then looked at Fayba who was staring at a rock. "What is it?" he asked getting up and standing beside her to see what was so special about that rock. He couldn't see anything unique about it though. "What's wrong?" he asked. Fayba didn't answer. She just took out a piece of paper from her backpack and unfolded it, revealing a drawing. Lance looked closer and saw that it was a picture of that rock and the trees behind it.

"This was the last thing that my father drew. He came in here to catch a criminal that ran into the forest. They say that he fell and hit his head on something hard, like a rock." Lance took a closer look at the rock and sure enough, there was blood on the side of it. "They say that the trees pulled him out of the forest because they don't like intruders. I guess he drew this before the trees noticed him. The person who found him said that he wanted me to receive this picture. He died seconds later. I always thought that he was trying to tell me something by drawing this picture."

Fayba walked closer to the rock. She knelt down to where the dry blood was. She then lied down where it was clear that was where her father's head would have been when he drew the picture. She looked at the drawing then up at the tree that was above the rock. She then sat up quickly, looking at something in the tree. She looked back at the picture and stood up, walking closer to the tree. Lance followed behind her, wanting to know what she saw.

"I always thought this was a leaf, blowing in the wind on the tree," she said, pointing to the picture for Lance. Lance took a closer look at the picture then looked up at the tree. "But look up there, it looks like there is a-"

"Necklace on one of the tree branches," Lance finished for her.

Fayba nodded. "I think he wanted me to find that. I have to get it."

Lance looked at her. "You can't get it, it's in the tree and I don't think the tree is just going to let you climb up."

"We'll see about that," she said, putting the drawing back into her bag and handing it to Lance. Before Lance could stop her, she knocked on the tree's trunk.

"Who dares to disturb me!" the tree demanded, opening his eyes and looking at Fayba.

"Uh, hi Mr. Tree, sorry to disturb you but-"

"What do you want intruder?" he demanded again, not looking pleased to see her.

"Um I don't know if you remember but years ago my father was here and he drew a picture before you and your fellow tree friends dragged him out of the forest." The tree's face expression suddenly changed from annoyance to guilt.

"I remember," he said in a less angry voice.

"Well it looks like there is something in one of your branches that he wanted me to find so I was hoping that you would let me climb up and get it," Fayba said, holding her breath, waiting for the answer.

"Alright, but only because your father was a good man," he said, which surprised both Fayba and Lance.

"But you dragged him out," Lance said.

"We did that because he was too far in the forest for anyone to find him, but he wanted to draw something first. I'm just sorry that he didn't survive," the tree said. "Anyways the past is past, now climb up before I change my mind," the tree said to Fayba. She nodded and quickly climbed up.

"Be careful," Lance called.

"Ya, ya, I know," Fayba said, grabbing the branches to pull herself up. She got to the branch that the necklace was on and she began to slowly crawl on it, towards the end of the branch. She reached for it and was able to grab it without losing her balance. She found that there was a locket, connected to the chain and she recognized it immediately. She opened up the locket and looked at the family picture that was taken when she was six. The same picture, only bigger hung in the ballroom of her home.

"What is it?" Lance shouted up at her.

"It's the locket that my father carried with him everywhere. He said that as long as he had this, we would always be together. He must have lost it when he fell," Fayba said slowly, as she put the necklace around her neck. She wiped the tear that rolled down her cheek and looked up. She then pulled up her body, shocked at what she was seeing over the trees. "Lance, I see it! I see the castle! If we walk straight we can get there in no time!" she shouted. She quickly climbed back down to the ground. "Thank you," she said to the tree.

"No problem," he said, closing his eyes. Fayba grabbed her bag from Lance and started walking quickly. Lance had to jog a bit, just to keep up.

---

Fayba and Lance made it to the castle just when it was getting dark. They were hiding in the bushes that were surrounding the castle. She was looking for an entrance to the castle that she could go to without being spotted.

"Okay so I think I should go in and you wait out here," Lance whispered to Fayba.

"Stay out here? Why can't I go in?"

"Because it would be easier to sneak in with just one person than two and since Fiyero is my brother, I think they would be more sympathetic towards me instead of you."

"Uh Fiyero has never met you so what makes you think that they would believe you and besides I should risk it since it's my mother is the one who is dying, not yours," Fayba said, getting angry that Lance would even think about leaving her out here.

"I think I should go in and that's that. Just stay here," he said.

Fayba mumbled a spell and pointed her wand at Lance. Lance then fell forward into a deep sleep. "Sorry Lance, I need to do this. I can't risk your life, it wouldn't be fair. Hopefully by the time you wake up, I would have already talked to Elphaba," she said to the unconscious teenager.

Fayba stood up, ran to the side door of the castle, and opened it with her bobby pin. She took one last look at the bushes that hid Lance's unconscious body before she went inside. She walked up the stairs as quietly as she could. To tell the truth, she had no idea if she was even walking towards Elphaba or farther away from her but she lived in a castle all her life, how hard could it be to find her? After five minutes of aimless walking, she realized it was harder than she thought. She closed her eyes and touched her necklace, hoping that her father would help her.

She then heard a woman's voice humming a song. She recognized the song because her mother always sung it to her when she was a child. She decided to follow the voice. It was a long shot that it was Elphaba humming but then again everything about finding Elphaba was a long shot. She walked closer and saw a bedroom door, opened slightly. She was sure that the humming was coming from in there. She walked sideways, having her back to the wall so no one could sneak behind her. She stopped walking once she reached the door. She looked in slightly, seeing a green hand picking up a hairbrush. "Elphaba," Fayba whispered. She was about to step into the room when she heard someone yell.

"Hey! Who are you!" the voice shouted. Fayba looked in the direction of the voice, seeing a guard running towards her. Fayba started to run in the opposite direction as fast as she could, looking behind her, unfortunately not seeing the other guard, crossing her path, grabbing her.

"We have an intruder," the guard said holding her as the other guard caught up to them. "What should we do with her?" he asked the other guard.

"Bring her to the tower until we get further instructions from the masters," the guard said.

They began to pull Fayba, as she tried to struggle free. She came this close in finding Elphaba to save her mother and now she was going to fail. She shouted and struggled but it was no use. The guards were too strong and they brought her to the tower and threw her in. She walked to the window that had bars through them. She left her bag with Lance so she didn't have her wand. She was trapped. Her only hope now was that Lance would wake up and rescue her. Yup, she was screwed.

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	10. Surprise Surprise

disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters I made up, blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 10: Surprise Surprise

Fayba tried to stay awake as much as she could but exhaustion had caught up with her and she fell asleep. She woke up with the sun in her eyes, realizing that it was probably just after sunrise. She looked around, almost forgetting where she was and why she was there but it all came quickly flooding back to her. Getting off the train, walking through Robber's Forest, talking to Lance, fighting with Lance, casting a spell on Lance, and seeing a green hand. She smacked her hand on the cold hard floor. She was so angry with herself for being so close in talking to Elphaba and ended locked up in a disgusting tower room.

Never had she been in a room so gloomy. Her mother would have probably broken down and cried if she even saw a room like this. It was an ugly colour of grey stone all around. There was one dark brown door that probably had many locks on the other side so that there was no chance that the prisoner could escape. There was a bed, well sort of. It was wooden table that looked like it could collapse at any moment with a thin blanket with holes on top. Fayba didn't want to touch it, wondering about the last person that was here. Her mother would tell her to stay in a corner and not to touch anything because there might be carrying diseases. So that is what she did. She curled up into a ball, holding her knees, in a corner. She wasn't sure what to do. She tried to think of a plan to escape but she didn't have her wand and she could only do little spells without it.

She wished that she thought to hide her wand in her clothing instead of leaving it with Lance. Her mind then went to Lance. What happened to him? She wondered if they found him and carried him to a holding cell too. Or maybe he woke up and was now thinking of a plan to rescue her or maybe he woke up and left her, deciding to go back to Shiz. She prayed that Lance wasn't that selfish. Lance could be selfish at times but he did have his moments of kindness. She hoped that he was kind enough to try to rescue her.

Fayba stood up and went to the window, trying to find the bush where she left Lance but the tower window was on the wrong side of the castle to see the bush. She sat back down on the floor, blinking back the tears. She was rarely scared. She always had the comfort of knowing that everyone in Oz would risk their own life to protect her's but she wasn't in Oz anymore. She could die out here and no one would find her in time.

She tried to calm herself down so that she wouldn't cry. She couldn't. She had to keep her mind focus on the task at hand. She couldn't and wouldn't take this as a defeat. She figured that Elphaba would soon want to see the person who trespassed onto her property and then she would tell her who she was and why she was here. Fayba looked at the door, hearing footsteps, coming towards her. They stopped in front of the door and she heard the locks beginning to open. She stared at the door, praying that it was Elphaba standing on the other side.

---

_This isn't good. _Elphaba thought to herself. She had stayed up half the night wondering what to do. She was worried that they finally found her. No matter how careful she was, staying in hiding, only having a few people know she was alive. Someone slipped up. Someone accidentally said something and now they found her. She wanted to pack up and leave as fast as she could to another hiding place. Sure, she and Fiyero knew where they were going to live the first time they ran but this could be an adventure.

She thought of how close they had come to kill her. She thanked her lucky stars that her loyal guards found the intruder before she attacked her. They had told her it was only one person and they took her to the tower prison. That was when she wanted to leave. Surely that person did not travel alone, who knew how many more were coming. She wanted to leave to protect her family. It wasn't just herself anymore. She had Fiyero and her children. She couldn't risk having anything happening to them.

There was always a possibility that this day would come and now it has. She started packing her things when Fiyero came into their bedroom. He had heard about the intruder and wanted to see if she was alright. He then demanded to know what she was doing and she said that they had to use plan b. He didn't want to leave though. He said this was their home and that no one had a right to make them flee. She then did point out to him that they fled Oz, their first home to go into hiding. He dismissed that and thought that they should stay, let the intruder be nervous the whole night then talk to them. Make the intruder tell them how she found out about this place and how many more are coming. They would then decide from there and Elphaba agreed. She didn't think this was the best plan but she trusted Fiyero and would stand by him with any decision that he picked (unless it was the wrong one).

They packed the night before and had their children pack also just in case they had to make a quick escape. Once Elphaba woke up in the morning, she was convinced that there was an army that was coming to kill her. She tried to reassure herself that the trees would have told her, for they promised almost twenty years ago to protect her and they had. They made sure no intruders got close to the castle but this might have been too much for them. She sighed and sat on the end of her recently made bed.

She started thinking about Glinda. She wished that she could switch places with her, just this once. Glinda was always beloved and would never have to worry about an army with pitchforks knocking on her door, wanting to kill her. She thought about her everyday. She wondered what she was doing, if she was married and had children. Elphaba assumed that she probably did. Every man wanted Glinda to be his wife. She just wondered who the lucky guy was.

"Elphaba," Fiyero said, braking her train of thoughts. "Do you want to see the intruder now?" he asked.

Elphaba nodded and walked to Fiyero. He grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze and they began to walk to the ballroom of their castle. They walked towards their thrones and Elphaba smiled at that fact. She never thought she would sit on her throne, waiting for one of the guards to bring an intruder into the room. She sat down, only releasing Fiyero's hand for a split second so he could also sit. Her youngest daughter was sitting beside her and her oldest one was sitting beside Fiyero. Her youngest son was sitting beside her oldest daughter. Her heart began to race as she saw Fiyero nod his head, signalling to bring in the intruder.

The guard walked in first, pulling the intruder's arm. Elphaba couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the intruder. She expected the intruder to be a middle age woman with a death look in her eyes, not a young, frightened girl. The girl looked down at the ground when she walked in but looked at Elphaba straight in the eyes when she stopped. Elphaba was shocked and at a total loss of words. For a second she thought Glinda was standing in front of her, looking scared and worried. She turned to Fiyero, seeing that he too was stunned.

"Your graces, we found this intruder outside your bedroom, my advice would be to kill her so she will not be able to tell anyone what she has seen here," the head guard said.

Elphaba couldn't even remember the guard's name because she was so focused on the girl that was in front of her. She stood up, letting go of Fiyero's hand for she felt she didn't need it right now. She walked down the steps slowly, not taking her eyes off the girl. She stopped right in front of her. No one said anything because they were all wondering what Elphaba was doing.

"What is your name child?" she asked.

The girl looked at her, she looked frightened and stressed but her eyes seemed to be relieved. "My name is Fayba," she said softly. She stopped talking, even though she looked like she wanted to say more. The guard told her on the way down to only answer what she is asked, nothing more. Fayba was already scared as it was and she didn't want to make matters worse. She couldn't believe though that Elphaba was standing right in front of her. After all her searching, she was glad that she finally found her even though they may want to kill her.

"How old are you?" Elphaba asked. She still couldn't believe how much this girl resembled Glinda.

"Sixteen," Fayba said, not sure why Elphaba was asking this.

"Why are you here Fayba instead of in school?" Elphaba asked. What she really wanted to ask was 'who is your mother' but she couldn't seem to form those words.

"I need your help," she said before she was interrupted.

"You need her help? Why in god's name would you need her help?" Fiyero demanded, becoming angry because he assumed that this girl was lying to buy herself time before the army came.

Elphaba turned to Fiyero. "Just let her speak," she said calmly to him, turning her head back. Fiyero did as she asked because he had never seen his wife act this way before. "Go ahead," she then said to Fayba.

"My mother is Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and she has the curse." Everyone around Fayba gasped, because they all knew about Glinda and the story. Every servant and guard she had, followed her when she and Fiyero left Oz. She had told her children at a young age because she had to explain why they were hiding from the rest of the world. Elphaba looked at Fayba, then at the guard who was holding onto her arm.

"Release her," Elphaba said to the guard.

"But how do we know that she is telling the truth and not just trying to escape?" Fiyero called to Elphaba.

Elphaba looked at Fiyero. "Look at her, she is the spinning image of Glinda," she said, pointing her finger at Fayba. Fiyero still didn't look convinced.

"I have proof," Fayba said. She grabbed her father's necklace with her free hand and opened the locket. She handed it to Elphaba. She looked closely at it. Fiyero ran up to her to look at it too. "That's my family portrait when I was six." Fayba said. Fiyero looked up at the guard.

"Release her," he said and the guard let go of her arm and Fayba immediately rubbed it.

"Will you help me, please? We can go when it's dark and get you in and out of my castle without being caught," Fayba said once Elphaba handed back the necklace to her.

"We will leave once it gets dark," Elphaba confirmed. Fayba was overwhelmed with happiness and tightly hugged Elphaba.

"Thank you, so much. You have no idea what I went through to find you. Lack of sleep and food, and my feet are not my friends right now," she rambled once she released Elphaba, which made her laughed.

"Well Fayba I would like you to meet my husband, Fiyero, and my children, Glindy, a nickname for Glinda, who is fifteen, Calista is twelve and Eland is ten," Elphaba said as Fayba shook everyone's hand a bit shocked that none of the children were green or made out of straw. She saw a servant whisper something in Fiyero's ear and he smiled and nodded.

"Fayba, you get a special treat, our oldest son who is your age just woke up, and here he is," Fiyero said pointing behind her. Fayba turned around and couldn't believe it. In came Lance, carrying her bag. "This is our son, Lance," Fiyero said putting an arm around Lance's shoulders, "who still hasn't told us why he was outside and unconscious, with a girly bag," Fiyero continued. Fayba and Lance just stared at each other.

"It's because it's mine, I left it outside before I came into the castle," Fayba said, grabbing her bag out of Lance's hand. She felt so betrayed. She told him what she knew about Elphaba and he made her believe that he was Fiyero's brother who he has never met. Did he really not know the way to the castle or was he just trying get her lost so that she would never find Elphaba to save her mother? Did he plan to enter that castle and come back out, saying that Elphaba wasn't there? It made so much sense why he wanted to come with her so badly.

"Well who wants breakfast?" Fiyero asked, oblivious to the death look that Fayba was giving Lance.

Elphaba noticed though. "Uh, let's go to the breakfast room and give Lance and Fayba a moment," she said grabbing her children and Fiyero.

"But I want to stay and see Lance get yelled at," Eland whined.

"Don't worry, there will be plenty of other times to see that," Elphaba reassured as they left the room. The servants and guards left too and soon only Fayba and Lance were the only ones in the room.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, still trying to wrap her head around this.

"Would you have believed me?" Lance asked back.

"Are you kidding me? About three days ago I found out that the Wicked Witch of the West that I always feared my whole life was not really evil and isn't really dead. I would have believed you telling me that your parents are really squirrels!" Fayba said. "Why did you tell everyone that you were Fiyero's brother?"

"I wanted to go to Shiz so my parents and grandparents came up with an idea to make me Fiyero's brother."

"Then why were we 'lost'? Did you just not want me to find Elphaba and save my mother?" she shouted, feeling every emotion that she had felt for days rising to the surface as she took a step towards him.

"No! When I travel back and forth from Oz, I usually ride a carriage! I never travelled by foot so ya I was really lost!" Lance screamed back at her, taking a step towards her. They were basically recreating the scene in the cafeteria.

"Then why didn't you tell me!" she yelled in his face, which was hard for her to do since he was a head taller than her.

"It would have made no difference! Besides it was none of your damn business!" Lance screamed and Fayba stepped back, blinking back the tears. She wasn't going to cry, not in front of Lance and not over something so stupid as a boy. She didn't understand why she cared so much. So what if he didn't tell her? He had to protect his family. She never had so much frustrated feelings towards one person before, especially a boy.

"You're absolutely right, it was none of my business," she said in a normal voice. She cleared her throat. "We should be going to the breakfast room, it's rude to keep people waiting," she whispered to him.

She bent down to pick up her bag that she dropped when they were fighting and left the room. Lance stood there for a second, wondering why he felt so guilty. True he saw tears in Fayba's eyes and he was never very good with tears but he never felt guilty, especially over a girl. He decided to just push those feelings aside and follow Fayba into the breakfast room. He saw that Fayba sat down in between his two sisters, forcing him to sit across from her. She talked to Elphaba and the rest of his family but ignored him, much like the time after the food fight.

"So Fayba, that's an unusual name, how did you get it?" Calista asked. The whole table could sense the tension between Fayba and Lance but ignored it.

"My mother made it up actually. She wanted to name me after you," Fayba said looking at Elphaba, "but she had to disguise the name so she took out the 'El,' changed the 'ph' into an 'F' and added a 'y'." Elphaba smiled, clearly touched that Glinda named a daughter after her.

"So do you have any other siblings?" Elphaba asked, suddenly wanting to know everything about Fayba. This girl could share memories about Glinda. Elphaba wanted to know everything that happened to Glinda after she left Oz.

"No, I don't." Fayba said, shaking her head.

"Who's your father?" Elphaba asked. Fayba dropped her gaze to the floor, not sure what to say.

"He died." Fayba heard Lance whisper. She smiled a bit; she thought it was sweet that he still looked out for her even though she was mad at him. The whole table went silent; no one knew what to say next.

"So uh, Fayba," Fiyero said, clearing his throat, trying to add some noise to the deafening silence that filled the room. Fayba looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "How did you find us? I mean who told you the truth and everything?"

"Um well it first started out with a project that I had to do. I had to find what your motives were," Fayba said, looking at Elphaba. She wanted to choose her words carefully so she wouldn't offend her. "I started to question the story because many things didn't make sense. I think though that I wouldn't have had so many questions and wanted to know more if Miss Libree didn't keep hinting me along."

"Miss Libree?" Elphaba interrupted. "She's still the librarian there?" Fayba nodded.

"So how did you find the answers? Did Miss Libree tell you?" Eland asked, very eager for Fayba to continue the story.

"No, Miss Libree didn't tell me. The day that I did the presentation, Pete came and told me that my mother has the curse," she paused looking around the room. Everyone was pulled into the story even Lance because he didn't know all of it. "So I went home and my mother told me the truth."

"Does she know that I'm alive?" Elphaba asked. She knew that the answer was probably no because Glinda would have come looking for her but Elphaba secretly hoped that she knew. For many years, she had written dozens of letters to Glinda, telling her the truth but she never sent any of them. She knew that if one of the letters got into the wrong hands, she would be in trouble.

"No, she still thinks that you died by a bucket of water." This made everyone at the table laugh. Not because they thought it was so dumb of Glinda to believe that but because it began as a ridicules rumour that no one took the time to think about how she could have died by water thrown on her. Even Fayba laughed but for a different reason. She thought about how everyone in Oz was tricked, even herself for many years, believing a story that was really so ridicules.

"So then who told you that my mother was still alive?" Glindy asked.

"Pete did," Fayba replied once she stopped laughing.

Elphaba chuckled. "He was never good at keeping secrets in a crisis. I'm actually surprised that he was able to keep this secret for this long. How did you find me though? I didn't tell him where I was going."

"I researched the possible places where you could be and ruled them out if there was even a small chance that you would be found."

"All by yourself?" Calista asked.

"No, Miss Libree helped me. Once I discovered that there was a castle in Robber's forest, I thought it was the best hiding spot because no one would risk coming all the way here. So I took a train to the village in the Great Gillikin Forest and travelled the rest on foot."

"Why did you go with her?" Eland asked Lance. Everyone turned to Lance because he hadn't said anything for a while.

"I actually followed her until she tripped over a tree root. I then helped her get to the castle. My plan was to keep her outside and talk to you two about the problem but she cast a sleeping spell on me," Lance explained quickly, looking back at his food as Elphaba turned to Fayba.

"A sleeping spell? Those are really hard spells, I guess you inherited your mother's strong powers," she said. Fayba nodded and slightly smiled. For the first time in days, she felt like everything was going to be all right.

---

The sun was about to go down and everyone was outside. Fayba watched as some servants got the carriage ready. She tried looking for the trail in the trees that was wide enough for a carriage to pass through but couldn't find one. She was a bit confused but she trusted that Elphaba had a plan. She talked to Lance after breakfast. She had forgiven him for not being completely honest with her. He was right, it was none of her business and he was just trying to protect his family.

"Are you ready to go?" Lance asked behind her. Fayba jumped and fell down the castle stairs; luckily, there were only three outside. Lance quickly chased after her, helping her up.

"Jeeze don't do that. I feel like I'm back at the library with Miss Libree popping out of nowhere."

"Uh it's called walking. You should pay more attention around you," he said, letting go of her.

"I pay enough attention to my surroundings," Fayba said, glaring at Lance.

"And it took me to step on a twig for you to realize that I was behind you after two hours," Lance said, glaring back at her.

"Ya well I was trying to read a map."

"Oh sorry, I forgot that you need to focus really hard to read a map. You really suck at reading maps."

"Oh ya and you're so great at it?"

"Hey! No bickering, we have to go," Elphaba said, coming down the stairs with Fiyero behind her.

"We weren't bickering!" both Lance and Fayba said quickly.

"Uh-huh," Fiyero said, not really believing it.

"It doesn't matter, we have to go," Elphaba said, giving Eland, Glindy, and Calista a hug, then Fiyero hugged them.

"Wait, who's going?" Fayba asked. She assumed it was only going to be her and Elphaba.

"Me, Fiyero, Lance and you," Elphaba said.

"Wait why Lance? Doesn't he have to get back to Shiz?" Fayba asked, hoping that Elphaba was a caring mother that deeply valued education for her children.

"We will go and cure your mother then take you two back to Shiz, now let's go and not waste anymore time," Elphaba said getting into the carriage, followed by Fiyero and Lance. Apparently, Elphaba wasn't one of those mothers.

Fayba stepped into the carriage and it immediately started moving. Fayba looked out the window and noticed that the carriage wasn't on the ground anymore but rising higher into the sky. Fayba leaned back quickly. "The carriage is flying," she said.

"Why thank you captain obvious. Quick now tell us what colour the carriage is," Lance said sarcastically.

"Lance do me a favour and shut-up. I didn't know that we were going to be flying to the castle," Fayba said.

"Oh well flying is the fastest way to get somewhere and we can't waste too much time," Elphaba cleared up.

"How did you get it to fly?" Fayba asked her.

"I memorized the spell that got my broom to fly years ago and used the spell on the carriage. You can get anything to fly," Elphaba said.

"No you can get anything to fly. You're the only witch in Oz history that could fly. Not even my mother can fly, she still uses the bubble that the Wiz made for her and she has the flying spell. I've seen her try once, when I was younger but she couldn't do it. How can you do it? Is there any special trick?" Fayba said, so intrigued that Elphaba was so powerful.

"I don't know. I cast the spell on the broom when I desperately needed it so I guess my powers grow stronger under pressure. I'm not a hundred percent sure," Elphaba replied. Fayba nodded and looked out the window. She couldn't believe that she was flying. "Would you like the spell? Maybe someday you could master it too. You are a very strong witch. I can tell because not only do you use magic, but you use your brains too. Most witches only use their magic," Elphaba said.

Fayba nodded and pulled out her notebook and a pencil that she had in her bag. She ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook and handed it to Elphaba. Elphaba wrote it down and Fayba put it in her bag. She didn't expect that she could ever make anything as big as a carriage fly but she always loved a challenge with spells.

It was dark by the time they made it to Fayba's castle. The carriage landed in the trees that were beside the left wall of the castle. They started walking towards the castle when a piece of paper blew in Fiyero's face. He grabbed it and read it. Fayba was beside him and recognized the piece of paper immediately. It was a flyer, for the celebration of the 20th year of the Wicked Witch of the West's death. She didn't want Elphaba to see it but it was too late, she already read it.

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you about the flyers but I was hoping that we wouldn't come across one," Fayba said. Lance quickly grabbed it and crumbled it up, throwing it away.

"It's alright. I don't need protection. Let's just cure Glinda and get out of here," Elphaba said, walking towards the castle. They reached a door and Elphaba started chanting a spell to open it. Fayba quickly jumped and pulled Elphaba to the ground, causing Elphaba to lose concentration on her spell.

"Are you crazy?" Fayba cried hysterically.

"She's not but apparently you are," Lance said while helping his mother up.

"The guards detect magic. We can't use magic to get in," Fayba explained. She then grabbed a bobby pin from her bag and opened the door with such ease.

"How did you learn to do that so quickly?" Fiyero asked.

"Please, escaping the prison that I call home was one of my favourite hobbies as a child," Fayba said stepping in first. Lance, Elphaba, and Fiyero followed her. Fayba shut the door and they were faced with darkness. Fayba then cast a spell and lit a torch. It wasn't much light but it was enough to see everyone's faces.

"We're in the secret passageway. The stairs lead to my bedroom fireplace. No one knows of this passageway," Fayba said as she began to walk up the stairs. Everyone followed her and they were soon in Fayba's room. She blew out the torch and put it near the fireplace. "My mother's bedroom is a couple doors down, she's probably sleeping so most likely no one is in there," Fayba said.

"How are we going to know for sure?" Lance asked.

"Simple," Fayba said. She opened the door and grabbed Pete who was walking by, pulling him into the room and shutting the door. She covered his mouth so he couldn't scream. "Pete you are so predictable. Maybe you should get a different routine once in a while to you know mix it up a bit," Fayba said. She then released Pete, giving him a chance to look around the room. There was only moonlight that filled the room but it was enough to see everyone's faces.

"You found her," Pete said, astonished that she managed to do it.

"Hello Pete," Elphaba said.

"Hello Elphaba, Fiyero, Lance," Pete replied.

Fayba looked at Pete. "Wait you know Lance?" she asked.

"Of course I do. I was told to help Lance come into society as Fiyero's brother."

"And you didn't tell me, please tell me this is all the surprises," Fayba said to everyone as they all nodded. "I don't believe any of you but it doesn't matter right now. Pete is there anyone in my mother's room?" Pete shook his head. "No one? Not even Nancy or a doctor?"

Pete continued to shake his head. "No one, I just left the room. She went to sleep a couple minutes ago."

Fayba nodded. "Alright, this is it, time to do operation save mom," Fayba said, opening the door slightly. She looked around; making sure no one was in the hallway before she stepped out. Lance, Pete, and Fiyero started to follow her. Elphaba stayed where she was for a second.

"Wait," she said which made everyone turn to her. Fayba thought that Elphaba was about to chicken out. "I need the spell book that I gave Glinda," she said, making Fayba relax.

"I'll go get it, just get into the room," Pete said as he quickly walked down the stairs.

Everyone started walking again as Elphaba's nerves grew. She hadn't seen her best friend in almost twenty years and she was scared. Even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to talk to Glinda, she was still anxious. She wished that one day; she would be able to see Glinda without sneaking around and actually talking to her. They reached her door without anyone spotting them and Elphaba saw Fayba turn the handle. Elphaba took a deep breath in, thinking this is it. It's now or never.

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	11. For the Greater Good

disclaimer: I'm sure most of you will skip over this because I have repeated the same thing over and over again but just in case, I own nothing except the characters that I made up.

Chapter 11: For the Greater Good

Fayba opened the door and everyone quickly walked into Glinda's bedroom, trying to make as little noise as possible. Fayba went to her mother's bed and knelt down as she did only days earlier. She couldn't help but cry. She had been so worried for so long and now it was almost over. She would soon have her mother back. She wondered how her mother felt when she was gone. Pete would have told her that she left. She wondered if her mother felt abandoned. She hoped that she didn't, but she most likely did. She wondered if her mother was angry or sympathetic towards her. Fayba felt someone kneel down beside her and looked over, seeing Elphaba staring at her mother.

Elphaba was so scared. She waited for this moment for so long. She wished every day that she would see her friend again. However, she didn't think of the possibility that she would sneak into her friend's room while she was sleeping to save her life. Elphaba wanted desperately to nudge Glinda awake so she could tell her everything. She heard the bedroom door open and looked over, hoping that it was only Pete. She released the breath that she had been holding when she saw her monkey friend. Pete handed Elphaba the spell book that she thought she would never see again. She opened the book, searching for the spell and a moment later, she found it.

"Fayba, you need to step back for the spell to work," Elphaba whispered. Fayba stood up and walked to Lance, suddenly becoming very nervous. If the spell didn't work, this was the end for her mother.

Elphaba began to chant the spell, using her free hand to move in circles in the air above Glinda's body. The spell was the longest spell that Fayba had ever heard; even the flying spell wasn't as long. Once Elphaba finished, she closed the book and handed it back to Pete. She had no intention in taking the book with her; it belonged to Glinda now.

"That's it?" Fayba asked. "How do we know that the spell worked?" She continued to question.

Elphaba smiled. "She will be fine when she wakes up tomorrow. It takes a while for the spell to sink in. We should go and get you two back to school."

Fayba shook her head. "I think I want to stay here and wait till she wakes up."

"You can't do that; remember you are suppose to be at Shiz. I will call you first thing in the morning, okay?" Pete said, wanting to get everyone out of the castle as fast as he could. He couldn't handle so much pressure. Fayba nodded and started walking to the door. Everyone followed until they heard a very quiet whisper.

"Elphie? Elphie is that you?" Glinda asked. She had her eyes slightly opened, as if she was in a dream sequence. Elphaba took a step towards the bed, grabbing the hand that Glinda held out for her.

"Yes it's me," Elphaba choked out so quietly that if the room wasn't silent, no one would have heard her.

"Oh Elphie, I miss you so much," Glinda said, breathing heavily, showing that the spell was working.

"I miss you too," Elphaba replied, squeezing Glinda's hand.

"Elphie I'm so, so sorry," Glinda said.

"Sorry about what?" Elphaba questioned.

"I should have come with you that day at Emerald city but I was too much of a coward to fight the system. I should have helped you instead of trying to sweep the problem under the rug. I should have been there when you melted, instead of hiding in the next room. I'm so sorry that I wasn't a strong enough person to help you. Can you forgive me?" Glinda begged.

"There's nothing to forgive," Elphaba said slowly. "You did what you thought was right and you did try to help me so don't you feel guilty for even one second. Everything turned out for the best. Now get some sleep so you can feel better in the morning, alright," Elphaba said, giving her friend's hand one last gentle squeeze before she let go. Glinda nodded and closed her eyes. Elphaba turned towards the door and Fayba quietly opened it and walked into the hallway.

They reached her room without being spotted. They said goodbye to Pete and walked back into the secret passageway and towards the carriage. The carriage then started flying towards Shiz to bring Lance and Fayba back. Everyone was quiet, not really knowing what to say to the display that happened in Glinda's room. Finally, Fayba asked a question that she had been dying to ask Elphaba for a while.

"Did you really mean it when you said that everything turned out for the best?" Fayba asked.

Elphaba smiled. "Of course I meant it. If not everything happened then who knows, you, Lance, and my other children might not have been born. That's would be something that I would never want to take back and I'm sure your mother feels the same."

"Don't you miss it?" Fayba asked.

"Miss what?"

"Everything. The people, festivals, Emerald city…"

Elphaba shook her head. "The only thing that I miss is seeing my best friend." Fayba nodded. She felt like she needed to do something for Elphaba. She looked across from her, seeing Lance and Fiyero sleeping. She felt so sorry for them. They had to go back into hiding, always looking over their shoulders, wondering if today is the day they would be discovered.

"I want to help you," Fayba said to Elphaba.

"Help me with what?" Elphaba asked, confused at what Fayba was talking about.

"No one should be in hiding, especially someone who is as good as you. I want to help. I want to tell the story, clear your name and when everyone listens to me and accepts that you are good and not evil, then you can come out of hiding. Will you let me do this to help you?" Fayba said. She already started working on a plan in her head.

"Fayba it's too dangerous. Everyone might turn against you. I can't let you do it, that would be too selfish of me."

"And it would be too selfish of me to not help you. You deserve to be able to see your best friend without worrying about someone trying to kill you. I'm doing this with or without your blessing. I'm just giving you the heads up for when I come knocking on your door, telling you that you can come back into society," Fayba said stubbornly. Elphaba knew that she must have gotten that from her mother.

"Alright, just be careful and make sure Lance helps you, he's a lot smarter than he looks." Fayba nodded. She knew that she could trust Lance to help her.

---

Jasmine woke up in the morning staring at the ceiling. She wondered where Fayba was, if she was alright or if she needed help. She worried that Fayba was trapped somewhere, hoping that someone would rescue her. Miss Libree tried to reassure her that Fayba was fine but Jasmine could tell that Miss Libree thought the same thing and was worried too.

She sighed and sat up, looking over at Fayba's bed, shocked at what she was seeing. Fayba was silently sleeping and she was smiling as if she was happy about something. Jasmine was so stunned that she didn't realize that she screamed until Fayba woke up suddenly and mentioned it.

"Jasmine, do you think you could keep it down, I haven't had a good night sleep in days," Fayba said sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Jasmine jumped out of her bed, ran, and hugged Fayba but the impact was so strong that they both ended up falling to the floor. They started laughing hysterically even though it wasn't extremely funny.

"What are you doing here? Is everything alright? What about your mother, have you seen her? Wait, where did you go?" Jasmine started asking one question after another, without allowing Fayba to answer them. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Fayba called.

"Miss Libree," the voice replied. Fayba ran to the door and opened it.

"Thank you," Fayba said hugging Miss Libree.

"Your welcome," Miss Libree said, not a hundred percent sure why Fayba was thanking her. "You have a call, Madame Torrible told me to bring you to the office, it's your mother," Miss Libree continued. She thanked her lucky stars that Fayba was back because she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep Fayba missing a secret much longer.

Fayba released Miss Libree and ran to the office, not carrying that she was still in her pyjamas. She weaved through all the other girls that were heading to the washrooms or back to their dorm rooms. She ran as fast as she could. She knew that the spell must have worked because how else could her mother call? She had to be fine. Everything had to be alright.

She burst through the office door, startling Madame Torrible. She tried to catch her breath that she clearly lost from running so fast. She looked at the desk, seeing the bowl there. Without letting Madame Torrible speak, she went to the bowl.

"Mom," Fayba said looking into the bowl. She burst into tears of joy when she saw her mother fully dressed in one of her favourite gowns with jewellery on her neck, wrist and even in her hair that was perfectly curled. She knew her mother's image was everything to her and even though she thought her mother could be shallow at times, she was so happy to see her standing there in all her shallow glory.

"Hi sweetie, how are you," she said, beaming into the bowl.

"How am I? How are you? Are you feeling better?"

Glinda nodded. "It turns out it wasn't the curse after all but just a bug. I'm sorry that I worried you."

"I want to come home to see you," Fayba said.

"Now you had an excuse to come home when I was sick but there is no reason to come home when I'm well. Besides I don't think it is good to travel in your nightgown," she said. Fayba looked down and this was the first time that she realized that she was still in her pyjamas. "So you stay at school, I assume that you have a lot of catching up since you have been hiding in your room for a couple of days. So go to your classes and catch up before the celebration of the Wicked Witch of the West so you can come to Emerald city with the rest of your classmates. You will really be amazed when you see Emerald city for the celebration," Glinda said. Fayba laughed because she was so happy that her mother was back to her usual self.

"I will mom," she said, still laughing at how her mother seemed to forget that she was on her deathbed only a few hours ago.

"Alright then, I have to go to help with things in Emerald city, see you later darling." And with that, Glinda's image disappeared and the water in the bowl became clear again.

"Fayba you should get ready, you don't want to be late for my class. Oh and don't worry about catching up in my class, we were just doing the presentations. It's a good thing that you went first or you would have had to go today. Anyways we finished the last presentation yesterday so we are doing something completely new today," Madame Torrible said. Fayba nodded and ran out the office, waving to Miss Libree as she passed her. She ran back into her dorm room and couldn't help but smile.

"What's with you?" Jasmine asked, brushing her hair.

"My mom is cured. She's fine," Fayba said, looking in the closet, deciding what to wear.

Jasmine stopped brushing her hair and looked at her. "What? She's okay?"

"Uh-huh," Fayba said. They hugged each other, tears in both girls' eyes. Once they pulled apart, Fayba looked at Jasmine, completely serious. "Remember when I said I would tell you the reason for my crazy actions?" Jasmine nodded. "I'll tell you why after classes. Meet me in the library, okay?" Jasmine continued to nod. "Alright well I have to get ready so I'm not late for class." Jasmine turned back to her mirror while Fayba pulled out what she was going to wear.

Fayba and Jasmine walked into Madame Torrible's classroom a couple minutes before class started. Fayba was looking around the room for Lance. She usually did this every time she was in this class so she could avoid him before class started but today she actually wanted to talk to him. She mentioned that to Jasmine and Jasmine left her side to go and talk to someone else. Lance was once again surrounded by people but they all left when Fayba politely asked them to. Once she was sure that they were all out of ear shot, Fayba whispered what she wanted to say to him. She wasn't able to talk to him yesterday when they got to Shiz because they had to get to their dorm rooms quickly so they wouldn't get caught.

"I want to help your mother," she whispered to him. She chose her words carefully, just in case someone was listening. Lance's face expression didn't change. He didn't say anything, waiting for Fayba to continue. "She deserves better and she helped my mom so I want to return the favour. Meet me after school in the library and bring Conlan along, we may need his help," she continued. Lance nodded as the bell rang, signalling for everyone to take their seats. Madame Torrible walked in and went to the front of the class.

"It is that time of year again," Madame Torrible began. "The celebration of the best thing that ever happened in Oz. This is the 20th year that the Wicked Witch of the West has been dead. As everyone knows, there is a huge celebration at Emerald city with food and games and it is the best party of the year. Now some of you may have been able to attend this party before but some of you haven't and this is a special treat for all of you. The students of Shiz are always invited to go to Emerald city for the celebration. Now I am not sure for the ones who have been there noticed that the people who work the booths are always students from Shiz, first years in fact and all of you are first years. It is part of your grade to do a booth that is fun. You can make food, host a game anything you want. It is four students to a booth so I would chose your group wisely. You can pick anyone to be in your group that is in first year, so you don't have to pick from just this class. This is the sheet that will help you get started," Madame Torrible said, handing out the paper.

Fayba looked at Lance then at Jasmine. They both agreed to be in a group with Fayba and she asked Lance to see if Conlan wanted to be in the group. Lance snorted though, saying that Conlan will jump at the chance to be in a group with Jasmine.

---

The rest of Fayba's teachers didn't give her much homework to catch up. In fact, by the end of classes for the day, Fayba finished the homework and was all caught up. She walked straight to the library with Lance, Jasmine, and Conlan following behind her. Fayba knew that she would be able to speak to all of them privately in the library. The beauty of the library was that no one came in there unless they had a project that needed to be researched and no one came right after school because they would want to talk to their friends for a while first. Frankly, the only person who came practically everyday was Fayba because she loved to read. Apparently, no one else did. So, as Fayba walked in she waved to Miss Libree and led everyone to the back of the library. She had talked to Miss Libree at lunch and she had promised Fayba that she would make sure no one would be able to come close to them to hear their conversation. Fayba sat down on the ground and everyone followed as she looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"I asked everyone here because I believe that all of you can help," Fayba started. She had told Lance in class that she intended to tell Conlan and Jasmine the truth and he agreed, eventually. "To make a long story short, Elphaba isn't really evil and she isn't really dead," Fayba continued. She didn't really want to beat around the bush. "The Wiz and Madame Morrible made it seem like she was evil but they were the ones that were evil. Elphaba fled Oz, in hopes that she could start over. She made everyone believe that she was dead so that she wouldn't be hunted down and killed. I found her though, and she cured my mother. My mother is fine now and Elphaba is back in hiding. I don't think it is right, to let Elphaba be punished for the wicked things that the Wiz and Madame Morrible did. I want to help her but I can't do it by myself. I need all of you to help too," Fayba said quickly. Jasmine looked at Fayba, startled at what she said.

"Are you sure she isn't evil, I mean what if she is just trying to trick you so she could come back to Oz and do more destruction," Jasmine said, not ready to trust the Wicked Witch of the West.

"I'm her son, trust me she's not evil," Lance reassured Jasmine.

"No way!" Conlan said, getting excited but still keeping a normal voice. "I always knew there was something weird about you," he said to Lance as they did the guy handshake. Fayba couldn't believe it. Conlan just accepted it, just like that but Jasmine was still having some doubts.

"Are you sure, like a hundred percent sure?" Jasmine asked and Fayba nodded. Jasmine thought it over and figured that she trusted her friend to do what's right. "Alright so what do you need help in?" she asked and Fayba smiled.

"We should tell the truth, to the public. If we show all the things that doesn't make sense in the story and explain why, they might come to terms that Elphaba isn't really evil, we just won't tell them that Elphaba is alive, not until we know it's safe for her," Fayba explained as everyone nodded.

"Just like your presentation," Jasmine said.

"Ya, but with more answers then just questions," Fayba replied.

"How do we tell the public? It's not like we can just stand on a box and shout it out," Conlan commented.

"He has a point," Lance said.

Fayba looked at her hands for a second, trying to think where they could tell everyone the truth. She then noticed a piece of paper sticking out of Jasmine's bag. Fayba lunged for it and pulled it out of her friend's bag.

"Hey!" Jasmine said but Fayba ignored it. She had the perfect plan. She turned the piece of paper so everyone could see it.

"This is where we'll tell everyone, at Emerald city. We have the booth; we can use it to expose the story. It's a perfect plan," Fayba said.

"Gee, where have I heard that before?" Conlan asked, looking at Lance but Fayba was too excited to notice.

"What do you say? Can we spread the truth?" she asked everyone. Lance nodded and so did Conlan. Fayba looked at Jasmine who still looked a bit reluctant to do it. "Come on Jas, let's do it for the greater good."

Jasmine sighed and nodded. "Where do we start?" she asked.

Reviews are always welcome!


	12. Why Can't We Learn?

disclaimer: owning nothing gets really annoying sometimes. Once again, I own nothing, shocker.

Chapter 12: Why Can't We Learn?

Fayba wasn't sure if this was going to work. She spent the past couple of days preparing. Jasmine worked on making the brochures and posters; she truly had a gift for making things colourful. Lance and Fayba gave as much information that they had about the full story to Conlan. He worked on trying to tell the story the best he could without people freaking out. They all worked together and even Miss Libree helped a bit. They went over what they were going to say, repeatedly, making sure that they have it just right.

She thought about the consequences if she went through with this. Everyone in Oz could turn on her, but she felt that Elphaba was able to do it because she knew what was right, so she could do it too. Fayba hoped that the strength that Elphaba had would come to her. She took a deep breath because they were about to start the celebration, eleven o'clock sharp. She had been at Emerald city every year for the celebration and her mother was right, everyone was really going full out for the 20th year celebration.

She never thought that her mother was a very strong person. She thought running Oz was easy. Everyone took care of themselves, only coming to her with problems that they couldn't handle and with a flick of her wand, Glinda would fix it. Fayba now thought that her mother was so strong. She had to come here to Emerald city every year, and celebrate the day that her best friend died. Fayba didn't think she would ever be able to be strong enough to do something like that. How her mother was able to celebrate was a mystery to Fayba.

"You alright?" Lance asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"I should be asking you that question, it's your mother's death that we're celebrating," Fayba said.

"Ya but I'm a tough guy," he said hitting his chest with one of his hands, causing Fayba to laugh as she shook her head at him. Then they suddenly stop laughing, staring into each other's eyes. Fayba thought that Lance was going to kiss her and she wondered why she wasn't pulling away. She felt drawn to him for some reason.

"Ew, look who it is," a female voice jokingly said, causing Lance and Fayba to pull away from each other. Fayba turned to the source of the voice and smiled.

"Ruby, Ander!" she said running to them, giving them each a hug. "How's life in Emerald city?"

"It's good," Ruby replied.

"Ya good for you, your not the one who keeps getting night shifts to take care of the horses," Ander said.

"That's because the horses like you so much," Ruby said in a baby voice, pinching Ander's cheek. He quickly smacked her hand away and Ruby and Fayba laughed.

"I want you to meet some people," Fayba said pulling both their hands to her booth. "Ruby, Ander, this is Jasmine, Conlan, and Lance. Jasmine, Conlan, Lance, this is Ruby and Ander," Fayba introduced as everyone shook hands with each other.

"So what's the theme for your booth?" Ander asked. No one was able to answer him because Madame Torrible came running around shouting.

"Places people, places, the celebration is starting in one minute!" she yelled.

"We have to go, we promised to help serve drinks for the first hour, we'll drop by later," Ruby said to Fayba. "It was nice meeting everyone," she said while pulling Ander's arm to the table that was serving drinks.

Fayba turned to face the booth; their sign was still covered, waiting for the celebration to begin to reveal what they were doing, so that Madame Torrible wouldn't shut them down. "Ready?" she asked everyone. They all nodded as the doors opened for the celebration to begin. Fayba grabbed some brochures as Jasmine revealed the sign. This was it, no turning back now.

---

"So that went well," Lance said and everyone turned to him, all looking annoyed. "I just wish that egg throwing contest booth wasn't beside ours. Who knew people would pay just to throw eggs at the others who were trying to tell the truth," Lance continued.

Fayba, Jasmine, Lance, and Conlan were all sitting outside Emerald city on the steps. It turns out the public didn't like them trying to ruin the celebration, as Madame Torrible put it. They had the booth for only half an hour before the word got around that there were people saying that the Wicked Witch of the West wasn't evil. They were lucky that they got out of there alive, with only raw eggs on them. Madame Torrible spent fifteen minutes yelling at them, assuming that they were playing a practical joke. She didn't let any of them explain, and after shouting at them, they were instructed to stay outside, on the Emerald city steps until the bus came to pick up all the Shiz students.

Before anyone could comment to Lance, Glinda approached them from her bubble. She looked extremely angry. No one said anything, staring at Glinda, who had her hands on her waist, and tapping her fingers. Conlan, Jasmine, and Lance didn't say anything because really, what could you say to the leader of Oz about this? Fayba didn't say anything because she wasn't sure what to say to her mother. Everyone just waited for Glinda to say something.

"What the hell?" Glinda said. Everyone was surprised because no one had ever heard her swear before, not even Fayba. "Let me tell all of you a little story. I'm in Emerald city to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wicked Witch of the West's death and I ask Nancy where my daughter's booth is. She then whispers in my ear that the booth has been closed because it was a conspiracy. I'm shocked, I can barely think straight and then I find out why. It turns out that you were saying that Elphaba wasn't evil but good and everyone threw eggs at you until you were at the safety of the outside! Have I left anything out?" Glinda said, looking straight at her daughter.

"No," Fayba said, having a sudden interest in her shoes.

Glinda dropped her hands from her waist and knelt down to her daughter's level, which was hard to do since she was in a huge puffy pink dress. "Why would you do that?" she asked the question directly at Fayba.

"We thought the public should know the truth," Fayba said, looking at her mother. She couldn't help but feel a bit thankful that her mother was yelling at her, instead of on her deathbed.

"On the 20th celebration of the Wicked Witch of the West's death?" she cried, standing up and beginning to pace.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Fayba said, watching her mother pace.

"What could have possibly come over you to think that was a good idea?" Glinda asked. Fayba dropped her gaze to the ground again, biting her tongue so she wouldn't blurt out the answer. Now wasn't the time for Glinda to find out that Elphaba is really alive.

"We're sorry, we just thought that it was about time to let the truth come out," Lance said, sticking up for Fayba.

"Well I hope all of you have learned you lessons to never tell the public the truth," Glinda said, but stopped talking to think about her comment. "Well, you know what I mean. Now I have to go inside to do some damage control, and for goodness sakes, get that gunk off you," Glinda said, getting onto her bubble and directing it to the inside of Emerald city.

"I'm sorry Fayba that it didn't work," Jasmine said once Glinda left. She rubbed her friend's back to give her support.

"Hey, at least we tried," Conlan joined in.

"Ya, we did our best," Lance added.

"We just have to try harder next time," Fayba said, standing up and using the same spell that she did to get the honey off to get the raw eggs off her. She then pointed to Jasmine and Conlan to get the eggs off them too. She knew that Lance could get the eggs off himself.

"What do you mean, try harder next time? I don't think there should be a next time," Jasmine said, "and I don't want there to be a next time."

"We can't give up, we have to keep trying for the greater good, don't get discouraged," Fayba replied.

"No offence, but save the cheerleading pep talk. We were lucky that we got out of there with just eggs on us and not pitchforks. We're lucky that Madame Torrible just thinks it's a prank and that your mother is going to do damage control. It may cost us our lives next time, not just posters and brochures," Conlan said, getting a bit annoyed. "How much longer do you expect us to risk our lives? I'm out, I'm done, that's it."

Fayba looked at Lance. "Do you agree with them? Do you think that we should be cowards and give up?" she asked him. Lance just kept his gaze to the ground.

"I think my mother would want us to stop," Lance said slowly.

"You don't want to help, fine. Just fine," Fayba said, picking up her bag and walking away.

"Where are you going?" Lance asked, following her as Jasmine and Conlan stayed where they were.

"Away," Fayba said.

"To where?" Lance said grabbing her arm, forcing her to stop walking and face him. "Madame Torrible told us to stay where we were."

"Since when do you listen to authority?" Fayba asked, in complete disgust. "I'm going to try to figure out a plan, now let go!" she said, trying to pull her arm out of his grasp but he just held on tighter.

"It's no use, we tried. My mom won't be angry that we failed, honest. Besides, it's not so bad when you're in hiding. It's quiet and peaceful, except when Eland tries to invent a potion, but hey, gotta love that kid." Lance rambled. "It's okay, really," Lance reassured.

"Why did you come to Shiz then?"

"What?" Lance asked, confused at the sudden change of subject.

"Why did you come to Shiz if living in isolation is so great?" Fayba clarified. Lance didn't know what to say. He wanted to go to Shiz because he hated being in hiding for all those years. "Well?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," Lance said.

"Yes it does matter. You didn't like being isolated did you?" Lance didn't answer. "Did you?" she asked again.

"No," he admitted quietly, releasing her arm.

"And now you're able to go freely wherever you want. Don't you think your mother deserves that too," Fayba said.

Lance sighed. He knew that Fayba was going to continued trying, even if no one was going to help her. She was sometimes too stubborn for her own good. "Your right, she deserves better, I'll help." Fayba smiled and jumped on Lance giving him a hug but quickly pulled away when she realized what she was doing. "Let's go back and convince Jasmine and Conlan now," he said walking back to the steps, Fayba followed, even though she expected that Jasmine and Conlan weren't going to help. "I'm helping Fayba," Lance said. Jasmine and Conlan were surprised. They thought that Lance convinced Fayba to not try anymore, not the other way around. "You two can give up, but I'm with Fayba, my mother deserves better," he said to Conlan and Jasmine. "So let me ask you this, in or out?" he questioned.

Conlan looked at Lance, then at Fayba, then at Jasmine, wondering which side to pick. He didn't want to try anymore but Lance was his only friend and this was his mother. "I'm in," Conlan said, knowing that he had to help his friend. "We need to help, what if it was your mother," he said to Jasmine.

Jasmine looked at Fayba. She had been doing Fayba so many favours and she did them because she had never had a best friend like Fayba since her childhood best friend died. She sensed that her friend was telling her to stick by Fayba. "I'm putting this on your tab. One of these days I'm gonna need a favour from you and you are going to say yes, with no questions asked because I think I am going to do something crazy someday as I am doing today. I'm in," she said and Fayba hugged her.

"Thanks! Okay, so let's discuss plans," Fayba said before she was interrupted.

"Dude, what are you learning at that school?" Ander asked as he walked up to them with Ruby beside him.

"You know you could have given us the heads up," Ruby said as they sat down on the steps.

"So what's the damage?" Jasmine asked them.

"Well your booth is gone, as well as your posters and brochures. Everyone wanted a piece to rip up, you guys were lucky that you were able to grab your bags and get out of there so quickly," Ruby said as Ander nodded.

"But I did manage to save one brochure and I read it. I must repeat, dude, what do you learn at that school?" Ander said, handing Fayba the brochure.

"Thanks," Fayba said, putting it in her bag.

What was surprising was this could have been the most likely time that Fayba would have noticed that her notebook was missing. She could have also noticed it when it fell out of her bag, but then again, she was trying to run away from the mean people throwing eggs at her. If she did notice, some things may have turned out differently. That notebook had many secrets that Fayba wanted to remain kept, like the location to where Elphaba was hiding. She didn't intend to take it to Emerald city, she just forgot about it because she was so busy preparing the booth.

So, as Fayba was outside Emerald city, laughing with her friends, someone inside Emerald city picked it up. Curiosity got the best of him and instead of just reading who it belonged to, (if he did, he probably would have given it to Madame Torrible or Glinda), he decided to read it. He thought it was a girl's diary and he always wanted to know what went on in the female mind, since he hasn't had a date in almost thirty years. When he discovered that this wasn't a diary, but a notebook and when he uncovered the secret that Fayba had been hiding, he ran to the head guard of Emerald city, telling him what he had learned.

"Tell no one, we can't let this leak to Glinda," the head guard had instructed him. He nodded and went back to work, sweeping the floor, which was how he came across the notebook in the first place. He saw the head guard whisper to others at different times the rest of the day. It had gotten around to only a few, and there was a plan, and the plan was to be discussed after the celebration, when all the students from Shiz left as well as Glinda and her servants, to make sure there were no spies.

---

"Bye," Fayba said as she hugged Ruby and Ander. "This was a lot of fun, well, besides the getting eggs thrown at me part," she continued.

"Ya, this was fun, write more okay, I want to know exactly what you are learning at that school," Ander said.

"Oh, give it a rest," Ruby complained and Fayba laughed.

She then turned to the bus and got on. Every student on the bus stopped talking when she walked in. She slowly sat down beside Jasmine. "I guess everyone is talking about it," Fayba said to Jasmine.

"Gee, what tipped you off?" Jasmine asked sarcastically.

Fayba laughed and looked past Jasmine and out the window, hoping to see Ander and Ruby one last time. She saw them wave and she waved back but noticed something odd behind them. Madame Torrible was talking to the head guard of Emerald city. She never liked that guy. Fayba always suspected him having something to do with her father's death. Her father was the head guard before he died and she knew that he always wanted her father's spot. She did mention to her mother once, but her mother brushed it off, and of course she did, who would take the suggestion of a child.

"You okay?" Jasmine asked.

"Ya, of course," Fayba said, turning her attention back to Ruby and Ander who clearly were trying to mouth something to her. Madame Torrible came onto the bus moments later and it started moving. Fayba leaned back in her seat, looking at Madame Torrible, in hopes to read her mind.

"Bye!" Ruby shouted, still waving even though Fayba wouldn't be able to see or hear her anymore.

"Dude, she can't see you," Ander said.

"Is dude like your new word or something?" Ruby asked turning her attention to Ander. "Cause it is really getting annoying."

"Dude, duuuude, duuuuuuuude," Ander started saying.

"Stop that!" she said as she smacked him.

"Ander!" someone called, interrupting their conversation. "I need you to take the night shift with the horses, I'm sorry I can't do it, my sis just went into labour and if I'm not there for her to break my hand, you will end up everyday doing the night shift," the man said once he reached him.

"Sure, no problem," Ander said.

"Thanks dude!" he said as he ran away.

Ruby turned to Ander. "So that's where you got the word, I should have known, you two are like connected at the hip when you work. Anyways, I got to go; it's getting late, see you tomorrow," Ruby said, running home.

"Bye," Ander called after her.

Ander started walking towards the stables, oblivious to the fact that there were more people walking into Emerald city then out. As he walked into the stable, from the outside entrance, he noticed that the door that led to the inside of Emerald city was opened. He walked over to shut it because he was always told to close the door so the noise wouldn't bother the horses. Once he reached the door, he noticed that the head guard was talking and there were many people listening to him, as if he was making a speech. He thought that was kind of weird because why would he make a speech now when the party was over. For some reason though, he had a strange feeling that it had something to do with Fayba telling him earlier that day about Elphaba being alive and not evil.

"I'm sure everyone has heard about the booth that Glinda's daughter and her little friends sat up today. They claimed that the Wicked Witch of the West isn't really evil. If this is true then what is evil? That witch destroyed our homes, cursed innocent animals with wings, turned people into straw and tin! If that isn't evil then I don't know what is!" the guard shouted as everyone cheered. "I found Fayba's notebook and I shockingly discovered that the Wicked Witch isn't dead but in hiding." This caused everyone to gasp. "I believe that the Wicked Witch cast a spell on Fayba and her friends to try and get us to believe that she isn't wicked so she can come back to Oz to do more horrible and evil things. The only way to break them from the spell is to kill the Wicked Witch. Luckily, the witch slipped up and let Fayba write in her notebook where she was hiding. We shall go tomorrow, as soon as the sun rises and kill the Wicked Witch!" This lead to more cheers.

"But what about Fayba and her friends?" someone in the crowd screamed, causing everyone to quiet down.

"Don't worry, I spoke to Madame Torrible and she has a plan to keep them at Shiz. Tell everyone you know about the plan; just make sure no one from Glinda's castle or Shiz find out. We can't have spies telling Elphaba that we are coming," the guard said and everyone cheered.

Ander couldn't believe it. He silently closed the door and went to the fastest horse in the stable. "Buttercup," he whispered. "Buttercup, please wake up," he continued saying while taping the horse's head.

"What do you want?" Buttercup demanded, clearly angry that someone woke her up, even if that someone was Ander.

"I need you to take me to Ruby's house, it's life and death," Ander said. Buttercup nodded and Ander hopped on her back and she quickly left the stables.

They reached Ruby's house in no time and Ander banged on the door. Ruby still lived with her parents because she was not yet married, once she was, she would live with her husband. Ander hoped that one day he would marry her but he couldn't think about that right now, he had to think about the crisis that is going to happen. He was grateful that Ruby answered the door and not her father, because it was late and he was sure her father would be cranky.

"Ander what are you doing here?" Ruby asked, clutching her bathrobe that was over top of her nightgown.

"They're going to kill Elphaba. They have Fayba's notebook, I don't know how, but they are going to leave tomorrow at sunrise. What do we do?" Ander asked. He had no idea what to do. He knew that he wouldn't be able to make it to Shiz on time, Buttercup couldn't run that fast in the night. Horses tend to get very sleepy at night and travel slower.

"Tell Pete," Ruby said. "We should go to the castle and tell Pete. Flying is the fastest way to go so he might be able to make it in time," Ruby said closing her front door and running to Buttercup. "I'm coming with you," she said climbing onto the horse, leaving enough room for Ander to climb on in front of her. Ander nodded and got on Buttercup.

"Go to Glinda's castle," he said to Buttercup and she immediately started running to the castle.

Reviews are always welcome!


	13. For Good

disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up, tear, tear.

Chapter 13: For Good

_**I'm limited:**_

_**Just look at me-**_

Fayba was a bit nervous when she woke up. For some reason she had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She tried to tell herself that it was all in her head. She figured that it was just nerves. She was brushing her hair when she finally was fed up with the stupid gut feeling. She reached into her bag to grab her notebook, to try to calm her nerves, telling herself that nothing was wrong. It was then when she realized that her notebook was missing. She shuffled through it, literally sticking her head in her bag, trying in find it. She than went to her desk that she shared with Jasmine and started lifting up papers franticly looking for it.

"What's with you?" Jasmine asked, seeing the panic in Fayba's eyes.

"I can't find it. Where in the world could it be?" Fayba muttered, opening her drawers, hoping that there was some chance that she accidentally put it in there.

"What are you looking for?" Jasmine asked.

_**I'm limited**_

_**And just look at you-**_

"My notebook, the one that has all my notes about Elphaba written in it. I wrote everything about the story not making sense, then answering the questions I had, and even where Elphaba is hiding. If it gets into the wrong hands, Elphaba could be killed," Fayba said, looking outside on the balcony, under her bed, anywhere that she could think, not really caring that she was making a huge mess.

"I'm sure it's here somewhere," Jasmine said, joining in the search for the notebook. They were still looking for it when Madame Torrible's voice filled the room.

"Would the following students please go to the library, Jasmine, Conlan, Lance, and Fayba," Madame Torrible's voice said. Jasmine and Fayba looked at each other. They suspected that Madame Torrible probably wanted to talk about their punishments.

_**You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda**_

_**So now it's up to you**_

"Come on, we don't want to make Madame Torrible wait and make her even angrier. We'll continue to look for it when we get back," Jasmine said and Fayba reluctantly agreed, grabbing her bag to make sure she wouldn't lose anything else. They walked into the library, seeing Lance and Conlan already there.

"What's going on?" Fayba asked Miss Libree. She thought it was a bit weird that Madame Torrible asked them to go to the library instead of her office.

_**For the both of us**_

_**Now it's up to you:**_

"I know as much as you do," Miss Libree said. Then they heard someone chanting a spell and a lock closing. Everyone looked at the door, seeing Madame Torrible standing on the other side with her wand.

"I'm sorry, but this is for your own good. Don't worry soon the spell will be broken and all of you will be free," Madame Torrible said.

"What are you talking about?" Miss Libree demanded.

"I'm sorry, I had to make sure you were in here too, she also cast a spell on you, my own staff," Madame Torrible said, walking away. Lance ran to the door and tried to open it with his wand but it would budge, he then tried pulling on it, but it was no use.

"We won't be able to open it, only the person who cast the spell can reverse it," Miss Libree said.

_**I've heard it said**_

_**That people come into our lives for a reason**_

"Why would she do this?" Jasmine asked, worry and confusion in her eyes. Miss Libree shrugged her shoulders; she was at a loss of words. It was almost as if Madame Torrible wasn't herself.

Fayba's gut feeling grew stronger as she walked to the window and looked down. They were too many stories high to jump and make it down that far without a scratch. She looked up from the ground and saw something in the distance, flying in the sky. As it was coming closer, Fayba realized that it was a monkey with wings, and not just any monkey, it was Pete.

"Pete?" she asked and everyone went to the window to see what she was looking at. Pete was close enough to see them but he had been flying so fast that he wasn't sure if he would be able to stop in time.

_**Bringing something we must learn**_

_**And we are led**_

"Move out of the way!" he shouted as everyone stepped aside from the window. He flew through the window, landed on floor, and tumbled a bit before he was able to stop himself. Fayba ran do him, casting a spell to give him a water bottle to drink from. She handed it to him and he drank all of the water in a matter of seconds. He dropped the bottle and continued to pant, trying to catch his breath. "I've been trying to call you all night!" he finally said, pointing his finger at Miss Libree. "When I realized that there must be something wrong with the bowl, I flew here!" he explained, breathing deeply.

"Why were you trying to call here? What's going on?" Fayba asked, knowing now that those stupid nerves were trying to tell her something.

"They found out, they found out where Elphaba's hiding and now there is an army in Robber's Forest who are going to kill her," Pete said, grabbing the water bottle that Miss Libree handed him.

_**To those who help us most to grow**_

_**If we let them**_

"Oh my!" Jasmine said covering her mouth. She never met Elphaba but she knew that this was just horrible, especially for Lance.

"How did they find out where she was and that she was alive?" Lance demanded, ready to accuse Pete for not being able to keep a secret.

"My notebook," Fayba said, looking at Lance, feeling guiltier by the second. "I couldn't find it this morning. I must have lost it." Lance just stared down at her. She had never seen him so angry. He walked to one of the tables and kicked it, causing it to tip over.

_**And we help them in return**_

_**Well I don't know if I believe that's true**_

"An army is going to kill my mother and there is nothing that I can do to stop it!" he shouted. Everyone was afraid to say anything because they all knew that no one could warn her, not even the trees because they were asleep at this time of day.

"Yes there is. There's still hope," Fayba said, standing up as Lance glared at her.

"To quote Conlan, save the pep talk!" Lance said. "We need a way to get to my parent's castle before the army does. Any suggestions?" he asked sarcastically, not really thinking there was any way to save his mother.

_**But I know I'm who I am today**_

_**Because I knew you:**_

"The fastest way is to fly. If we fly there, we can make it before the army," Fayba said, confidently.

"Uh Fayba in case you haven't noticed, the only one here that has wings is Pete and there is no way that he could fly fast enough, he's too tired," Conlan said.

"Yes but I have this," Fayba replied, pulling out the flying spell that Elphaba gave her. She was so grateful that she tore the piece of paper out of her notebook and shoved it in her bag. "It's the flying spell," she told them.

_**Like a comet pulled from orbit**_

_**As it passes a sun**_

"Fayba, no one in Oz history except Elphaba has been able to fly," Miss Libree said, feeling sorry that she was the bearer of more bad news.

"Yes, but you have had a lot of experience in spells, maybe you could try it," Fayba said to Miss Libree.

Miss Libree shook her head. "Wisdom does not give you more power. My powers are no greater than average, but yours may be," she said to Fayba. "Glinda is a very strong witch, and I've heard your teacher from your sorcery class say that he has never seen someone so powerful since Elphaba," Miss Libree continued as she handed the spell back to Fayba.

Fayba was so nervous. Never had she had this much pressure on her. If Elphaba died, Fayba would feel responsible; after all, it was her notebook. She felt all eyes on her, especially Lance's. Fayba looked at the spell, then at the table Lance tipped over. She didn't have her wand but she decided to give it a shot. She began to read the spell then pointed to the table. Everyone looked, seeing the table still on the ground.

_**Like a stream that meets a boulder**_

_**Halfway through the wood**_

"Try again," Lance said and Fayba nodded. She said the spell again and pointed to the table but nothing happened. "One more time," Lance encouraged her. She chanted it one last time, closing her eyes and using both her hands to point to the table. She said the spell but didn't open her eyes, hoping that her magic would give one last push.

She opened her eyes when she heard Jasmine shout, "You did it!" Fayba looked at the table and couldn't believe it, the table was off the ground. She moved her hands to the right and the table moved to the right she then moved it to the left and the table moved to the left. Fayba walked to the table and climbed on it slowly, hoping that her weight wouldn't cause the spell to break but it seemed fine.

"Let's go," Fayba said. Lance then came onto the table, followed by Jasmine, Conlan, and Pete but Miss Libree didn't move. "Come on Miss Libree, there's enough room for you too," Fayba said.

"Ya, but maybe I should stay here-"

_**Who can say if I've been changed for the better?**_

_**But because I knew you**_

_**I have been changed for good**_

"Don't you dare chicken out. Elphaba need us, she saved your life, don't you think you should return the favour. Let's go," Fayba said. Miss Libree nodded and climbed onto the table. "Okay table, to the castle in Robber's Forest," Fayba commanded and the table started moving out the window and towards the destination.

They arrived at the castle before the army, but they knew that it wasn't far behind them. Fayba leaped off the table and ran to the door, causing the table to fall as well as everyone else. Luckily, the table wasn't far from the ground. "Elphaba! Elphaba!" Fayba shouted, banging both her fists on the door. One of the servants opened the door and Fayba pushed past him and walked into the castle, as well as everyone else. "Elphaba! Fiyero!" Fayba shouted until she saw Elphaba, Fiyero, and their children run towards them.

"Fayba? Lance? What are you doing here? What's wrong?" Elphaba asked, but she had a feeling that she already knew the answer.

_**It well may be**_

"An army is coming, there's no time to explain in great detail, you have to hide. You won't be able to escape without someone seeing you. We have to make this place look like it has been abandoned for years. Where's your secret passageway?" Fayba said quickly.

"We don't have a secret passageway," Eland replied.

"Of course you have a secret passageway, how could none of you discover it. Didn't any of you guys go through an exploring faze when you were younger?" Fayba questioned, she was very close into becoming hysterical.

"No," Glindy, Calista, Eland, and Lance all said in unison.

_**That we will never meet again **_

_**In this lifetime**_

Fayba sighed. "Unbelievable," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Follow me," she said loud enough for everyone to hear as she ran up the stairs, towards Elphaba and Fiyero's bedroom. "When I was younger, I use to try and find the secret passageway in other people's castles. Every castle had a secret passageway. They were mostly started in the master bedroom," Fayba said, going to the fireplace and tapping her fingers on each stone quickly. Once she was certain that the fireplace wasn't the entrance of the passageway, she moved to look under the bed. "Was there anything that was here before you moved in?" Fayba questioned, coming out from under the bed.

"Besides the fireplace, the bookshelves," Elphaba said. Fayba went to the bookshelves and started pulling books out, throwing them to the floor. She would never have done this if she wasn't in a crisis, it killed her not to take care of the books.

"Anything else?" Fayba asked, crossing the room to the other bookshelf.

_**So let me say before we part**_

_**So much of me**_

"Not that I can think of," Elphaba said as Fiyero shook his head.

Fayba started really throwing the books. If it wasn't in this room then it could be anywhere in the castle and they didn't have time to search everywhere. One of the books that she threw hit a candle stand that was on the wall, causing it to turn. Suddenly the bookshelf that Fayba just went through opened. Fayba turned around. She knew it couldn't have been a book that she pulled off the shelf; the book wouldn't have come out in her hand. She looked around the room and saw the candle stand that was now sideways. She walked over to it and pulled it right side up and the bookshelf closed. She turned it sideways again and the bookshelf opened.

"Damn I'm good," Fayba said to no one in particular. "Go and hide in the passageway. We'll try to stall them and when they come in, it will look like this castle has been abandoned. Go, we'll make sure all the servants and guards follow you," Fayba instructed. Elphaba, Fiyero, Glindy, Eland, and Calista all went into the passageway as well as some servants and guards. Miss Libree, Conlan, Jasmine, and Pete left the room to find all the servants and guards to send them in. "Go, what are you waiting for?" Fayba asked Lance.

_**Is made of what I learned from you**_

_**You'll be with me**_

"I'm staying, I want to help," Lance said.

"Go and protect your family, I'll be fine, go!" Fayba commanded. Lance nodded but before he left, he grabbed the back of her neck, pulled her into him, and kissed her. Fayba didn't know what to say once they pulled apart, her head was filled with so many thoughts but the one thought that shot out was that they're in a crisis and all he thinks about is kissing her. Fayba felt the anger boil inside her.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that," Lance said before he ran into the passageway. Fayba didn't feel angry anymore but annoyed. She pushed the feeling out of her head though because she had more important things to focus on.

"Oh, before I go," Elphaba said, coming back, she cast a spell making the castle look like it has been abandoned for years.

"Thanks," Fayba said and Elphaba nodded as she followed the rest of the servants and guards that ran into the passageway.

_**Like a handprint on my heart**_

_**And now whatever way our stories end**_

"Alright, that's everyone," Miss Libree said. Fayba nodded and turned the candle stand up right, closing the secret passageway.

"Let's go," Fayba said, running out of the room, down the now very dusty staircase, and out the door as everyone followed, all thoughts about the kiss had left her head.

They were only outside for a couple seconds when they saw the army coming towards them. The army stopped, shocked that there were people standing on the steps in front of the castle.

"I thought you said that they were locked in the library," the head guard said to Madame Torrible.

_**I know you have re-written mine**_

_**By being my friend:**_

"I cast a spell and everything. I don't know how they managed to escape," Madame Torrible replied.

"Fine, it doesn't matter, just make sure they don't notice me, I have a plan," the guard said, backing into the army.

He carried his bow and arrow as he ran to the trees, a bit away from the army so that he would have privacy for what he was about to do. He took his bow and arrow and aimed it at Fayba. This arrow wasn't just an ordinary arrow. This type of arrow was used to shoot at someone to break an evil spell. The only flaw was if a person was hit but had no evil spell cast on them, they would die. The guard was so determine though. He thought if he saved Glinda's daughter from evil, he would then finally get Glinda as his wife. He has been trying to marry her since her husband 'died'. He smiled at that thought, he didn't die, he was murdered, by his own second in command, who was appointed head guard when he died.

_**Like a ship blown from its mooring**_

_**By a wind off the sea**_

"What do you think is happening?" Calista asked Elphaba in a whisper.

"I don't know darling," Elphaba whispered back, feeling a bit powerless. After all, Fayba was in this mess because she wanted to do her a favour.

"Hey look, I found a window," Eland called.

Everyone ran to the window, only a few could see out it at a time. Lance tried to look for Fayba. He noticed that she was standing on the castle steps, talking to Madame Torrible. He didn't know what cause him to look past her, but he did and that's when he noticed that there was someone holding a bow and arrow, aiming it at her. Lance ran out the door from the passageway that led outside.

_**Like a seed dropped by a skybird**_

_**In a distant wood**_

"Fayba look out!" He screamed, causing her to turn in the direction to where he was pointing, just as the arrow struck her chest. He made it to her to catch her before she hit the ground. Her head was now on his lap. She wheezed in and out, having difficulty breathing. "Fayba, don't go," Lance pleaded. "Stay here, don't leave me."

"I'm dying Lance, I'm dying," Fayba whispered so faintly that he could barely hear her.

"No, you're going to be alright," Lance said, trying to stay positive.

"I'm sorry, but I'm dying," Fayba said, reaching for her father's necklace that was around her neck. She took it off and handed it to Lance. "Make sure my mother gets this," she said, placing it in his hand, just before she stopped breathing. Lance started crying. This wasn't suppose to happen, not to them.

_**Who can say if I've been changed for the better?**_

_**Because I knew you:**_

"Fayba don't go, please come back, please come back," he cried, still holding her. Jasmine was now in the arms of Conlan, crying into his chest. Miss Libree tried to blink back the tears as Pete stared at Fayba's lifeless body, completely shock at what just happened.

No one in the army said anything. There were just a few whispers that made it all the way to the back of the army, explaining what just happen. Egard couldn't believe it when someone told him that Fayba died. He couldn't wrap his head around it. Twenty years ago to this day was the day after Elphaba melted. The rumour was being passed around and no one knew if Elphaba's death was just gossip or the truth. Twenty years ago, he looked up into the sky, hoping that there would be a sign, and there was. Glinda came down from her bubble and told everyone that the rumours were true. So, like twenty years ago, he looked up into the sky, searching for a sign. Like twenty years ago, he saw her and pointed up. Like twenty years ago he shouted 'look it's Glinda!' and like twenty years ago, everyone gasped, looking up into the sky to catch a glimpse of the Good Witch of the North.

_**Because I knew you: **_

_**I have been changed for good**_

Glinda climbed out of her bubble once it reached the ground. Twenty years ago, she was shallow, but happy, giving the news that everyone was hoping for, but today she wasn't happy. Today, she was horrified. She walked to Lance and Fayba's body without saying a word. She bent down, not caring about the dirt that would now be all over her dress. She touched Fayba's face, as she felt a tear roll down her own cheek. She remembered telling Fayba once that the only emotion that was appropriate to show in public was happiness. She now realized how stupid that was to say since now was the appropriate time to show sadness and above all, anger.

"She wanted you to have this," Lance said, giving Glinda the necklace. Like Fayba, Glinda recognize it immediately. She opened up the locket, seeing the family portrait that she desperately wanted done for reasons she couldn't remember why.

_**And just to clear the air**_

_**I ask forgiveness **_

_**For the things I've done you blame me for**_

"_Don't go, stay here. Why can't you send your second in command to get the criminal?" Glinda said to her husband as he was packing to leave for Robber's Forest._

"_Because I've been chasing this man for over six months and I want to bring him in, besides it wouldn't be fair to send someone else to finish the work," he said._

"_I don't like him, he seems creepy, I have a feeling that he doesn't like you," Glinda said._

"_Who?"_

"_Your second in command, even Fayba can sense it and she's only eight."_

_**But then, I guess we know**_

_**There's blame to share**_

"_He just has bad social skills, now I have to go or I'll miss my train," he said, kissing Glinda at the top of her head._

"_Promise you'll be careful."_

"_Hey, I'm always careful, besides, I have my good luck charm," he said, holding the necklace._

"_Ah yes, the girly necklace," Glinda said laughing._

_**And none of it seems to matter anymore**_

"_It's not girly, and it keeps us together," he said, then picking up his suitcase and leaving the room._

Glinda put the necklace around her neck and stood up slowly, wiping a tear off her cheek. She looked at the army, seeing everyone immediately look to the ground. "Who did this?" Glinda demanded, walking closer to the army. No one said anything, all too ashamed to say a word to Glinda. "Don't make me ask again, who killed my daughter!" Glinda shouted. She sensed that the army was afraid of her and she smirked. It was about time people took her seriously.

"He did," she heard someone say behind her. She saw Lance pointing to the head guard, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"So first you killed my husband and now you killed my daughter, what have we ever done to you!" she screamed.

_**Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun.**_

_**Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood.**_

"I didn't mean too-"

"Chose your words wisely, you better not even think about lying to me," she said to him.

"I, uh, I killed your husband but I… I didn't mean to um, kill your daughter, I thought she had an evil um, spell on her so I was trying to set her free," he stuttered.

"And why in the world would you think that she had an evil spell on her?" Glinda asked, clearly annoyed with him.

_**Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea.**_

_**Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood.**_

"I uh, found her notebook and it said that the Wicked Witch of the West was still alive," he said holding the notebook. Glinda walked over to him and grabbed the book.

"You stole her book," Glinda said.

"I didn't steal it I uh, found it."

"I told you not to lie!" Glinda said, casting a spell on him and a second later, he was in a cage that was clearly too small for even a child to comfortably fit in. "Maybe this will teach you not to kill my family, I just wish I had enough proof years ago to convict you," she said. She then walked away from him but still faced the army.

_**Who can say if I've been changed for the better?**_

_**I do believe I have been changed for the better?**_

"As all of you know about my daughter's booth incident yesterday, she was saying that Elphaba wasn't evil but the Wiz and Madame Morrible were. She had proof too but no one would even give her a chance to speak. What she was saying was true. Elphaba wasn't evil but good and she died. She wanted the madness to stop so she let Dorothy throw water on her. I knew this, but I was too afraid to stand up and tell the truth, but Fayba wasn't. She thought everyone needed to know the truth but look where it got her, people stealing her notebook, putting ideas in other people's minds that Elphaba is still alive. Elphaba is dead and so is my daughter, are you people happy now!" Glinda shouted, unable to control her tears. "Are you!" she screamed, running her hand through her now, imperfect hair.

There was a time that she would have cared gravely about her image, but not now. She had nothing left. No best friend, no husband, and no daughter. Glinda's legs gave in and she dropped to the ground, as she put her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Then she heard gasps from the army. She didn't understand why, but she felt like no one was looking at her, but behind her. She turned around and couldn't believe it. There standing behind her was Elphaba, fidgeting with her dress. Glinda's eyes widened, not being able to believe it.

"Hi Glinda," Elphaba said, shyly.

"Elphie?" Glinda asked not knowing if her mind was playing tricks on her.

Elphaba nodded. "She did this for me you know, she wanted me to come back into society so that I could see you. She came to me to save you, you had the curse, I cured you, and Fayba wanted to help me. I'm sorry that I didn't force her to not do it, if I did, none of this would have happened. But I can help her," Elphaba explained. "Do you have the spell book?" she asked Glinda before she could say anything.

_**And because I knew you:**_

_**Because I knew you:**_

Glinda slowly nodded, not trusting her voice to speak. She didn't know how Elphaba could help her daughter now, but she trusted her. She ran to her bubble and grabbed the spell book. She took it everywhere, just in case she ever needed it. She handed it to Elphaba and followed Elphaba, who walked over to Lance and Fayba's deceased body. Elphaba opened the book to the spell that she wanted. She started saying the spell and then pulled out the arrow. She threw the arrow away and placed both her hands on Fayba's wound, finishing the spell. She stopped chanting and looked at Glinda.

"Did it work?" Glinda asked her but before Elphaba could say anything, Fayba coughed.

"Mom?" Glinda heard. She turned to her daughter, seeing that the wound was now closed up and that Fayba sat up and was looking around. "What happened? I saw dad but he told me that it wasn't time yet," Fayba said and Glinda hugged her daughter, she was still crying, but tears of joy instead of sorrow. Glinda stood then up and went to the army.

"Do you see, do all of you see? If Elphaba is evil then why did she give my daughter, the future leader of Oz life? If all of you just open your eyes, you would see that Elphaba was set up to be blamed on. It isn't fair to let her take the fall when all she did was fight evil." Glinda then walked to Elphaba, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the army. "Today we are going to celebrate. For the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and is replaced by Elphaba, the Good Witch of the West." Both Glinda and Elphaba were shocked when they heard cheers, but then again, they loved Glinda and anyone good in her eyes, was good in everyone else's.

_**Because I knew you: **_

_**I have been changed **_

_**For good.**_

Reviews are always welcome!


	14. Epilogue

a/n: as a very wise dead guy once said, all good things come to an end and this is how I feel about this story. Thank you so much for the reviews, I loved all of them and please review for this chapter, I'd love to know what everyone thinks about the story.

disclaimer: if I owned nothing in all the past chapters, obviously I own nothing in this chapter, except the characters that I made up. Shocking isn't it?

Chapter 14: Epilogue 

Fayba was staring at herself in the mirror. She felt a bit like a clown with all the make-up on her. Her blonde hair was in curls, as her mother insisted and she was wearing a light pink dress. She fought with her mother all week, begging her to allow her wear something besides pink but Glinda told her pink is the best colour in the rainbow. Fayba didn't have the heart to tell her that the colour pink is not in the rainbow.

Fayba took a deep breath. She thought that she would always dread this day, especially after she graduated from Shiz, but she didn't. She felt that she did earn the title, doing something great before she was deemed. She did do something great, not only did she bring Elphaba out of hiding; she gave Oz a Good Witch of the West and soon a Good Witch of the East. It was about time her mother had help in running Oz. Fayba broke from her thoughts when she heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she called.

"Lance, can I come in?" he asked. Fayba nodded but then realized that he couldn't see her.

"Ya, you can come in," she said, still staring at herself in the huge oval mirror.

"Wow," he said as he walked closer to her.

"What?" she asked, watching him in the mirror.

"If you look half as beautiful at our wedding than you do today, you will still be the most gorgeous woman there," Lance said and Fayba turned around.

"Do those pick up lines really work?" Fayba asked, facing him. He knelt down so that he was eye level with her.

"I don't know, do they?" he asked back. Fayba laughed and turned back to the mirror.

"You don't think I have too much make-up on, do you?"

"I think you have just enough," Lance said.

"How did you get so charming," she asked, putting on her earrings.

"I think it was on my first day at Shiz when I asked a girl to walk around with me but she declined, saying that she had unpacking to do. It was then I realized that I had to be charming because she saw through my 'cool guy' image," Lance said.

"Is that so," she said, standing up and turning away from the mirror.

"Well, it took me a while though, since I kind of spilled honey on her," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her into him.

"She must have been so annoyed," she replied, putting her hands around his neck.

"Ya, pretty much," he said, leaning into her, their lips were inches apart when they heard a scream.

"Don't!" Nancy shouted at them. "If you two kiss, Fayba will have to go through make-up again and we don't have time, now let's go," she said grabbing Fayba's hand, pulling her along and Lance followed. "Alright, so you two walk through the doors and down the aisle. Once you get to the front, Lance, you step aside-"

"And my mother crowns me Good Witch of the South, we know, you only told us a hundred times already," Fayba said.

"Don't get smart with me young lady," Nancy replied, pointing a finger at her, but then she started to cry. "Oh you're all grown up; it seems like only yesterday that I was changing your dippers-"

"Let's save the embarrassing stories for after I get married so that my fiancé won't change his mind and not marry me," Fayba said.

"Oh, fiancé," Nancy said, pulling Fayba into a tight hug.

"Can't breathe, bones breaking, organs crushing," Fayba replied, which made Nancy let go.

"Sorry," she said, wiping her tears with her handkerchief. "Are you two ready?" she asked. Lance and Fayba nodded. "Okay," she continued, stepping aside so that when the doors open, everyone would only see Lance and Fayba.

Fayba wasn't nervous when the doors opened and she saw thousands of people, all in green, watching her walk towards her mother. She figured after having all that stress about her mother dying, being locked up in a tower, and then dying herself, this was no sweat; okay maybe just a little sweat. As Fayba walked down the aisle, she looked for her friends. She saw them all at the front, Miss Libree and Pete were smiling at her, Jasmine was holding Conlan's hand and Ruby was holding Ander's. This was a huge surprise to Fayba when she found out that her two best friends from childhood were dating, but she was happy for them. Fayba was actually the cause of Jasmine and Conlan getting together. Her dying made Conlan see that life was too short and he confessed his feelings to Jasmine and then Jasmine confessed her's.

Fayba smiled at them and then looked straight ahead. She first saw her mother smiling at her, then she noticed Elphaba beside Glinda, holding the crown that would be placed on Fayba's head when she was deemed Good Witch of the South. Behind Elphaba were Fiyero and their children. Fayba nodded to them. Glindy only had one more year to go at Shiz and then she would be deemed Good Witch of the East. Calista was going to inherit the Good Witch of the West when Elphaba retired but Fayba thought it maybe a very long time before Elphaba decides to step down because she absolutely loved to help Oz.

Lance released Fayba and stepped aside; allowing Fayba to climb up the stairs on her own, once she did, the ceremony began. For the name that she once dreaded to be deemed, she now loved and couldn't think about anything else she would want be called, well maybe Lance's wife, but that was a couple months away.

**The End!**

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